How We Can All Make The World A Better Place

Injustice hides behind every corner.

We give it different names depending on the imbalance it creates — racism, homophobia, transphobia, speciesism — but the premise is always the same.

A lack of willingness to understand and empathise, thinking that our own feelings of self-importance are always the most urgent to protect, for fear of what our identity and role in the world might dissolve to without them.

I need to be better at this. We all do.

The blame game will keep us the same. What need is there to change and face our fears of being vulnerable, when there is someone else to focus on instead? Personally, I think (because I believe in rhymes) that our blame comes from our shame, and that we project to avoid facing all of the things that we’ve done wrong ourselves in the past.

If we let people in, we ease ourselves out of the comfortable coma that we slept in when our hearts were closed.

I wish we could undo our conditioning and I wish we could restore the world to an original equilibrium, but we are in the middle now. We’re halfway between a perfect beginning and a perfect ending.

The only way to go next is forward, and here’s how…

⋆☽ Educate and Understand ☾⋆

To learn is to live; and it’s how we’ll finally understand how to truly love without exception.

Exposure to learning resources, such as documentaries and books, and new situations is what keeps our outlook open and our minds hungry for something new. When we challenge ourselves to travel, mix with new people, watch confronting videos, learn about topics no-one else around us is interested in — we allow ourselves to expand and start moving in a new direction.

An ever-growing mind leaves the past behind.

Action points that we can do:

• Buy and borrow books on the topics that we haven’t touched on yet, or don’t know much about — but feel like we should
• Watch hard-hitting documentaries that expose uncomfortable truths, like: Earthlings, 13th, The Central Park Five, and Fahrenheit 11/9

⋆☽ Explore New Situations With An Open Mind ☾⋆

It’s so easy to stay the same when everything around us stays the same.

Being bold and brave by moving into the unknown and challenging our boundaries is how we can soften the corners of our mind. This is not easy.

It means going to talk to people at parties that you wouldn’t normally mix with, when you could easily just stay in your own social group — and no-one would judge or call you out on it.

It means saying YES to new opportunities when it’s easier to say NO, and vice-versa for the old habits and routines which are recycling your time and energy over and over again.

It means travelling to new countries and continents so that you can immerse yourself in the different cultures and customs, even when it’s cheaper and more convenient to stay within the realms of the resort.

A willingness to explore is a willingness to know more.

Action points that we can do:

• Venture into new groups, social events, organised meet-ups and cultures
• Challenge ourselves to see things and people from another perspective; especially when it comes to our age-old beliefs and opinions that we feel like we’ve held forever — without knowing why…

⋆☽ Heal Yourself, To Inflict Less Damage On Others ☾⋆

We’ve all heard the old adage “hurt people hurt people” and in a lot of cases it proves to be true. By closing our hearts to hide our own scars, we lose touch with our highest potential for empathy: being prepared to feel the pain and suffering of others too.

Doing the self-work and focusing on our own healing process is how we can gradually become the best version of ourselves. A reluctance to heal is how people stay the same, and how we’ll always stay in the same cycles and patterns without moving forward.

When we don’t feel powerful in ourselves, we don’t feel powerful enough to create change.

By building our belief in ourselves and our own ability, while reconciling our old wounds and disappointments to increase our capacity for love, we can partake in active empathy — feeling the injustice palpably enough to DO something about it.

Action points that we can do:

• Invest in the professional help that we need, but perhaps have been avoiding; whether it’s a counsellor, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist or reiki healer.
• Discovering ourselves and our limits through personal development (ie, meditation, courses, workshops, reading self-help books)

⋆☽ Accept Change, Instead Of Resisting It ☾⋆

When we want things to stay the same, they do.

If the situation we’re in is beneficial enough, our primitive brain will fight to keep us in it — so that it can rest assured that we’re going to stay safe, fed, and alive and kicking. Our brain has not caught up with us yet, and it’s in no way modern; we’re trying to move forward here — so what can we do?

We can feel the fear but embrace change anyway.

This is a long-term investment and a way of life that we need to get into, rather than a one time event. Getting used to the discomfort of change is like wearing in a new pair of shoes. It gets better over time, provided you think it’s worth it.

Without change, life is boring — but comfortable. Sacrifice comfort for a future that has the potential to be better than the past.

Action points that we can do:

• Have an annual/monthly/weekly/daily review of what is and isn’t working, and what could or should change; different actions will birth different results
• Look for role models who are challenging the norm and achieving incredible things; having someone to look up to gives us somewhere to aim

⋆☽ Forgive Yourself, And Forgive Others ☾⋆

There are so many low vibration energies and demons which can be exorcised using the elixir of life that is forgiveness.

Being willing to truly forgive is being willing to truly move forward.

I wrote a whole post called 8 Reasons To Forgive The Person Who Hurt You The Most and it’s one of my most read blogs of all time. My biggest takeaway from my Christian upbringing is Jesus’ message of forgiveness, and I try to refer back to it as often as possible.

Forgiveness is freedom, and like anything else which is worthwhile — it comes with a caveat that it won’t always be easy.

If we can forgive ourselves, we can move forward. If we can forgive other people, we can move forward. Moving forward is the only way that we won’t stay stuck in the present or the past.

Action points that we can do:

• Research the Hawaiian practice of Hoʻoponopono and Jesus’ teachings about forgiveness
• Be willing to cry, journal, scream, and whatever else it takes to move stagnant emotions so that they can finally be released with forgiveness

☽ ☆ ☾

As a tiny part of a large, collective whole, we all have a contribution to make through the way that we act, think and behave towards ourselves and others.

By being willing to be better, we can do better — and we can make the world a better place. How can we start today to create a better tomorrow?

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Originally published at https://lizroberta.com on June 3, 2020.