Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World

As we respond to our own pain with more presence and compassion, the energy we have for responding to the pain of others increases dramatically, as does our sense of connection and care.

the same disruption that leads to people protesting in the streets is also connected to any liberation from groupthink that enables people to hear and heed their own drum beat a little better—to even remember it’s there.

Fortunately, when we’re committed to addressing the stubborn injustices and seemingly intractable problems of the world and we are not bound by so many assumptions, we have the chance to look at deeper patterns in our minds and in how the world works. We have the space to cultivate insight and discernment, to break out of old habitual perceptions a

It’s important to keep track of the vastness of an issue, but working to try to change things for one person, or one set of people, isn’t nothing.

We are being called to wake up and recognize our actions in the context of both a moment and in the context of how history has unfolded over centuries at the same time.

A systems approach helps shift us from formulaic, mechanical responses to issues to fluid responses that see the interconnected and constantly changing elements that keep emerging.

We practice in order to cultivate a sense of agency, to understand that a range of responses is open to us. We practice to remember to breathe, to have the space in the midst of adversity to recall our values, what we really care about—and to find support in our inner strength, and in one another.

Equanimity holds it all. Peace is not about moving away from or transcending all the pain in order to travel to an easeful, spacious realm of relief: we cradle both the immense sorrow and the wondrousness of life at the same time.

Sometimes it feels like we have to run a race. We have to beat the onslaught of hatred and divisiveness, the beleaguered planet, the economic and political disenfranchisement. They threaten to rush past us, as though the planetary metabolism were speeding up. But in truth, stopping and resting periodically helps us go farther.