The only way to change the world is from the inside…for that is the only world we have any control over, and yet, it is the world we visit the least.
I have found one sure-fire way to enter into, and change my inner world. It is meditation. My son gets very frustrated with me because I offer up meditation for many things that ail the body, mind and spirit. This is not because I am trying to sell it. It is because I truly believe in meditation and everything it allows us to do. It gives us the closest thing to control that we can have…
There has been a lot of research done within the last few years with regards to meditation and its health benefits. It has been said it can reduce stress, lower high blood pressure, and help alleviate symptoms of anxiety. They are continually finding new benefits of meditation, yet, I believe it is still thought by many to belong to those who practice Buddhism, believe in New Age, or are called an “old hippie.” I only think that because that is what I used to believe, that it was weird.
I am so grateful to God, the stars above, and the earth below my feet that I do not believe it to be weird any longer. It is meditation that allowed me to find that thing that was missing…you know the one I’m talking about…have you ever felt like you were just missing something…not sure what it was…but it was missing. Yeah, that thing.
The thing I’m talking about isn’t something you can touch, or see, or hear, or smell…but it is a something you feel, not by touch, but by just being. It is the most beautiful, serene, peaceful thing there is, and it resides in all of us. But it is only in stillness that you can feel it. You cannot feel it in the activity of our bodies and our minds, only in the stillness, the silence. And meditation is a tool that can help us find that stillness, that silence.
Meditation can teach us so many things about ourselves, about our inner world, about ways to change our inner world. Once again, the only world we can change. It can teach us how to change our thoughts or our words, or even our actions. In changing our own thoughts and words, we can change the world. Because it is our thoughts and our words and our actions that have created the world we live in today, the world so many complain about on a daily basis. And it seems that a lot of the complaining is blaming others for their misery.
Meditation can teach us to accept responsibility for the choices we have made in our life, all of the choices we have made (even the ones we don’t know for the life of us why we made that choice), knowing that we always have the ability to make a different choice if we don’t like the way our life is turning out. It allows us to accept our flaws, without judgment, because it is only in acceptance of the flaws that we can change…if a change is what is needed.
Meditation can show us a different perception of the world and the other humans who occupy it. I believe most people would admit that it is easier to find the flaws in others than it is to find them in ourselves. When you perceive the world differently, you realize that it serves no purpose to judge others…except to inflate our own egos, make ourselves feel better about our life and our choices.
A different perception allows you to accept that we are more alike than we are different, that everyone’s blood runs red, that we were all conceived the same way (sperm+egg), and that we want the same things out of life…to be happy and healthy. And seeing all the unhappy and unhealthy people in the world leads me to believe that we have some work to do…to our inner worlds.
And one of the most important things meditation can do is teach us to love ourselves, the most important love of all. Because it is only in loving ourselves that we can love our brothers and our enemies alike, that we can overcome obstacles and challenges in the achievement of our dreams, and that we can accept that we are beautiful…no matter what we look like. And it is only in loving ourselves that we will change our inner worlds so that maybe, just maybe we can Change Our World.
The Happy Human 