This is from Saturday’s Daily Good e-mail and was written by Birju Pandya. If you’d like to read the full article, click on the link.
There are 4 ideas you have to believe if you seek to “be the change you wish to see in the world.”
- Real change requires patience: Taking that weight loss example, it’s not easy to shift from junk food to veggies, and results don’t come right away. It takes time to move others through love (rather than by carrot or stick), but the results are real and lasting. Being patient is OK!
- Real change is decentralized/local:The revolution will not be provided by governments or corporations. It is not in their interest. It has to be owned in each household, one by one, to be real change.
- Real change cannot be traditionally measured: We are a society that believes strongly in measurable cause and effect. However, world doesn’t work that way — each result is born of millions of conscious and unconscious acts. Similarly, each action leads to millions of results. Why measure that complexity? Wouldn’t it make more sense to simply keep track of the root, which is the intention that people are cultivating?
- Real change is never complete: Each person in society is a seeker. As nobody has the answers, it is incumbent on all of us to humbly support each other in being better people.
If those elements resonate, there are many ways to cultivate this movement towards other-orientation. A few examples: building person-to-person relationships based on deep respect and connection, offering one’s gifts freely for some portion of the day, intentionally doing small acts of kindness, seeking internal clarity through any number of awareness-building practices (such as introspection, prayer, or meditation). The opportunities literally are unending.
