Can We Really Do Much of Anything to Change Anything At All?

Yes, we can change anything. But it begins with ourselves.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

This weekend, two dear friends got married.

Both, in the time I have known them, have changed in many ways. And the journey to get to this place together was not easy for either of them. But surrounded by friends and family, they pledged their love and lives together.

Who you were is not who you are. And who you are is not who you will be tomorrow. That’s the nature of the Universe. Because change is the one and only constant within it.

However, one of the biggest obstacles to change is the outside world. We see so many examples of unfortunate people and circumstances, unkind, uncaring, unempathetic people, and outright hatred and hostility — hope for change can be constantly tested to the point of breaking.

Yet when all is said and done — we can really change anything at all. It just comes with a wide variety of degrees of complexity and difficulty.

The first and more important consideration is that change begins with ourselves.

Mindfulness to empower ourselves

We tend to be creatures of habit. Most of us have ways we do things regularly that we don’t even acknowledge as habitual. But they are.

Further, the tools initially designed to better connect us to one another have actually disconnected us. The internet, cell phones, tablets, and all this amazing tech for instantaneous communication, information access, and the like separates us more than it unites us. The formerly limited cliques and social-circle gatherings can be global. Globally, they can share and spread misinformation and negativity equally as fast as information and positivity.

Because we tend to be habitual in our daily lives, we can easily get swept along in various currents. The court of public opinion and the collective consciousness can easily take our attention.

That, in turn, makes it look an awful lot like changing anything at all is impossible.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Change is a constant — the only constant in the Universe. Most of the…