For about 4 years now, I’ve been obsessed with a song from MC Yogi’s album Elephant Power. The song is called Be The Change and it’s the story of Ghandi, told in MC Yogi’s inspiring rap-form.I’ve listened to this song almost every time I’ve gotten in my car for the past 4 years and it’s meaning permeates more deeply each time.
“Be the change that you want to see in the world…. Just like Ghandi”.
Over… and over…. again.
At first for me, this meaning took on huge implications… things like:
- How can I start a movement?
- How can I get 1000’s of people to on board to make real change?
But then somewhere between the 5,000th – 6,000th times hearing the message… the meaning finally grew deeper for me.
It has nothing to do with the pomp and circumstance of big and elaborate movements.
It’s so much more subtle and occurs on an intimate, internal, individual basis.
Be the change is a personal commitment to doing the inner work.
It’s taking responsibility for your own life, your own addictions, your own wounds, and transforming them into compassion, empathy, and love.
This isn’t easy work (work I call Compassion Training), but it is the work of waking up.
Waking up to your darker shadow-y places and shining light in those directions.
And this work starts with yourself.
Giving yourself compassion, empathy, and love.
Taking care of those parts of you that you have neglected, that end up creating dysfunctional habits, and a dysfunctional delusional relationship with yourself, with others, and with the world around you.
Before we even start talking about starting a movement… this work is first…. and actually… this work IS the movement!
Most of you know my work in the realms of fitness and nutrition… helping folks start to look more clearly at their relationship to their body, movement, food, and nourishment.
When I give live talks, I’ve been quoted:
“If you struggle with your weight, with your relationship to your body, or your relationship to food, then healing that is part of your “spiritual journey”. In other words, it’s important work you’re here to do while visiting planet earth.
Healing these areas of your life is a doorway that shines light into your truth.
This is how I help.
Through this door… the doorway of a better relationship with your body and food, light shines into those shadowy places of delusion and transforms them into the truth of who you really are.
I’ve also found that through this portal, when taken seriously, other parts of your life start to come into alignment, like over-spending miraculously seems to stop, debts begin to diminish, intimate relationships deepen with vulnerability, and like your waistline, life begins to feel lighter.
Be the change you want to see in world is about the small daily things that connect you to yourself, your body, your relationships, earth, and the world around you in a more meaningful way.
It’s also not sexy.
I’ve found the more I practice this as my guiding philosophy, the glimmer and glamour of bull-shit promises of being a size 2 super model fade away for me.
The delusion is replaced by something much more profound.
The sexy is replaced with grounded-ness, roots into my life, realness and vulnerability in my relationships, and a deeper connection to truth.
(Which ironically becomes very sexy! I love paradox….)
And while the glitzy promises fed by a multi-billion dollar diet industry that “size 2=sexy” leave my consciousness, my solid size 6-8, feminine, curvy, strong body feels like home.
Why do I share this with you?
Because I struggled and struggled for years, obsessing about my body and the food I eat, until I realized… I’m not my body, I’m not my obsessions, I’m something so much more profound than that.
It required training my mind and my retraining my conscious and unconscious habits.
I did it.
If I can do it, anyone can.
Start with this:
- Slow down
- Cook more… get acquainted to the food you eat
- Give more compliments
- Sense compassion welling up in your daily interactions
- Pay more attention to your thoughts… notice negative habitual thoughts… do they serve you?
- Get outside in nature
- Find more pleasure in the smaller things (think a square of dark chocolate instead of a banana split)I love this work and I love to help.
I hope this blog post has inspired you to slow down and see that the real work is about getting real… with yourself…. in a loving and compassionate way.
I wrote this letter to give you inspiration, and also to have a better understanding of where I’m coming from as nutrition educator, coach, and teacher.
If this speaks to you, you are in a space of wanting to look at these shadowy places, and are looking for help to navigate through, you’re in the right place!
My question for you:
Please join me in the conversation and share below: Where do you struggle the most? Where are you most looking for answers?
Love and light,
Audra
