Changing the World from the Inside Out: A Jewish Approach to Personal and Social Change

Try making a commitment to seeking and finding a good point in yourself each day for a week. Then seek and find good points in other people for a second week. Then seek and find good points in the team or group with whom you work for a third week. Make this a daily practice for three weeks, and see if looking for good points becomes more habitual o

Breslov tradition teaches that the essence of song comes from finding and collecting the good from within darkness.

Lakein explains that this type of outcome results from opening people up and not just forcing them to do what you want.

We are now out of the realm of pure spirit and into the realm of perceptible interaction. According to a classic Jewish teaching, “Just like water reflects the face, so the heart of one person is reflected in the heart of the other,” meaning that, as humans, how we feel about someone has a deep impact on that person.

How we perceive can make real change in another’s self-perception. Seeing good can also change the way we talk about and approach a person.

From a spiritual perspective, perception is one of the invisible lines of connection between all things.

Reframing attacks as an affirmation of our significance can also be a good point that keeps us going in our social-change efforts.

Grounded in our goodness, which connects us to our source, we can skillfully manage the attacks that are sure to come our way as we make change.

When under attack and on the edge of despair, he searched for his source of goodness, self energy. Viscerally feeling this goodness, he had the spaciousness of heart to respond with curiosity.