Our resistance to change is frustrating and fascinating all at the same time. It’s frustrating because the reason we don’t change is that we’re afraid. And that fear isn’t based on any kind of reality, it’s based on stories we have told ourselves about what that change could look, feel or be like. Fascinating because whatever that change might be, we don’t do it despite knowing that the change will be very good for us.
Here’s the thing. We have no choice but to change. And while ‘change’ is some ambiguous word, change means cleaning up our own toxic life. Getting out of abusive relationships, stopping our own destructive behaviour, dealing with our own past pain. We must stop acting like five-year olds and expect that other people will clean up the mess we create. It simply cannot always be someone else's fault.
As a society we are nearing critical mass, if we’ve not reached it already, in terms of the anger and violence that permeates this world. This anger and violence isn’t created in a vacuum, it is created from the dysfunctional lives we insist on living. We must connect these dots. The way we live our life ripples out. It is us, individuals who make up society - not some phantom being that we have nothing to do with.
It’s not a new idea, but it is radical only because we resist change so strongly. Perhaps we’re just not evolved enough but truthfully, I don’t buy that, it’s just another excuse. It’s about taking responsibility for our lives and ironically, we vehemently resist that too.
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.” Mahatma Gandhi
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