Embody the change you wish to see in the world
Yes, I am ripping off Ghandi right now. But it’s not complete plagiarism now that I am giving this wise and awe-some man credit, right?
Ghandi espoused, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
As a justice-oriented teenager and peace-passionate liberal arts student, this message helped drive my decision-making. One summer in college, I interned at a public defender’s office in North Carolina, where I journeyed into the jail on a daily basis as part of the “Felony Fast Track” team. This very small team of three, including myself, helped people not get stuck in jail while they waited inhumane lengths of time for their court dates. Short aside: every single person I met with struggled with mental health, poverty, and medication management. On my last day, the other two women on the team gave me a small ring with the hopeful words:
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
I had never mentioned to them my connection with this guidance. When I received the goodbye present, I felt simultaneously seen and also connected. Wow, I felt, there are others like me who see our power and potential to cultivate a more loving world.
After college, I dove heart-first into studying yoga and the body’s vital yet overlooked role in healing. As I did so, Ghandi’s guidance kept poking me…
Is it enough to “Be the change?” Does that allow people to just hang out in theory?
Let’s slow down here… what’s the matter with theory?
In theory ;) , nothing. I freaking love theory. I love trying on the ethereal costumes of hypotheses in my own mind as I walk around town and interact with the world. I love the electric surge of realizing a theory that seems to make all the pieces magically fit together. But, and I’ve learned the following lesson in hard ways time and time again: there is a chasm between theory and practice – between the ideas in our heads and the reality of in-body, lived experience.
So much of modern society is locked in a cage of theory. In the idea of a world that “should” be a certain way, in theory. In this should-ing, way up high in the tower of theory, humans lose sight of each other. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote that the most important person is the one who is in front of you. I agree.
I can have a theory that we shall all live in peace if everybody smiled at each other when they pass each other on the street… but the reality is that even I myself don’t always feel like smiling, and to force myself to do so no matter what suffocates myself in a mask of inauthenticity; the lived-experience is that sometimes it doesn’t feel safe to smile; the truth is that the change we wish to see in the world and in our own lives is more complex and MORE EMBODIED than faking it till we make it.
For over a decade, I have continued to be guided by Ghandi’s famous quote, but with a twist of my own on it:
Embody the Change You Wish to See in the World.
Here are three (of many :) ) changes I wish to see in the world, and how they translate into me embodying them:
I see us living in a world where we each feel safe. Embody it: I work with my nervous system, previously non-conscious material, and trauma resolution to feel safe in my body.
I see us living in a world where people can rely on each other in a healthy way. Embody it: I say what I mean and I mean what I say. I work with my gut to know my true needs, and I work with my vocal apparatus to be able to ask questions and communicate more clearly.
I see us living in a world where we can be free and love freely. Embody it: Through movement and interoceptive practices, I know what freedom in my body feels like – it’s not just an idea, it is a tangible experience – which allows me to recognize it in the world around me and understand when I am experiencing oppression. I practice staying in my body, feeling what is here, and breathing through the discomfort in tough conversations.
For me, there is a subtle difference that lands more deeply in me when I say “Embody the change.” There is more of a call to action – I can’t just slap a band-aid of an idea onto things, or hide behind ideologies. I have to walk the walk. Walking the walk takes works, and in that work, there is healing, authentic living, and embodying the changes we see for ourselves and the world.