Be the Change: Finding Coherence in a Time of Collective Pain

As a human, it's really hard these days not to resonate with pain and suffering. It's everywhere. And it seems to be growing. And as a practitioner, I often find myself wanting to speak louder, teach harder, offer more processes, more lifelines. But then I notice that something about that feels… off. Not because it's wrong, but because the perspective is.

When I only see pain and suffering, I overlook the desire for healing and change.

When I only see things falling apart, I overlook the fact that what is no longer serving is falling away.

When I only see destruction, I overlook rebirth — and the emergence of something new.

Which got me thinking: is my point of focus misdirected?

In a time of suffering, we're told to reach out and help. Going within is selfish. It's sticking your head in the sand. It's uncaring. Or so we've been told. But in a world that appears to have endless suffering, endless problems, and not enough hours in the day to solve them all, do we have any other choice?

It's not about turning a blind eye or a deaf ear. It's about going within to effect change and healing. It's about becoming the generative impulse of the change itself.

The paraphrased Gandhi quote plays on repeat in my head: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” (Gandhi actually said something far richer — but my brain only has bandwidth for one-liners, so I've put the full quote at the end.)

Be hope, so others may feel they have options.

Be light, so they may find their way out of the darkness.

Be balance, so you embody stability.

Be truth, so others may find a path to their own.

Be love, so others may see a way to love themselves — and to love each other. And so we all may remember that we were never truly alone.

We only thought we were separated and limited because we had not yet found our core selves and connected to that true source of power within — the source that never tires, never depletes, and never runs out. That is the generative impulse. That is the power of change itself. And when we live in authentic relationship with our inner world, that coherence ripples outward, becoming life-giving, regenerative, and endlessly renewable.

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” — Mahatma Gandhi