Yes we can!
Was it really only a year ago that Obama swept to power on a wave of "Yes we can euphoria"? Gosh, the clock is really ticking! And just twelve months later, a mere blink of the eye, his poll ratings in America have dropped to 50% and are still falling. So much so, that a strong Democrat seat held for many years by Teddy Kennedy, has now swung back to the Republicans. People are already beginning to speak of a 'lame-duck' President, that he might now struggle to push through much needed policies. So what went wrong? Why did the gloss so quickly peel away? In my view, it is all down to highly misplaced expectation and forgetting that the only real way to change our world, is not by fumbling with external effects, but the internal causes. The only sure way of changing our world is from the inside out...

Change from the inside out
A year ago when Obama got elected, I wrote an article called Yes it's really time for change in which I wished him well and at the same time, cautioned about all the hype and drama behind society's expectations about what he might achieve.

He is after all only one man. He may be full of great intent, yet there is an enormous, established machine governing our society of which he is a product. If we are truly to change it, it is going to require many of us to do so. And to do so, requires us to change not from the outside, but from the inside first.

Only when we change from the inside will we truly change what is on the outside. This is a crucial part of the jigsaw that is missing from international politics right now; the realisation that everything is consciousness and interconnected; that we can only truly change that consciousness by bringing our attention to it and to do that, we have to go within and peel away the layers that cause us to feel we are separate from all life.

With interconnectivity, problems fall away
When we peel away those inner barriers, first we discover all sentient life is as one. We discover we don't really need the things we think we need, that the sense of inner completeness is EVERYTHING we are searching for in the outer world but can never find.

When we unfold our interconnectivity, our problems with climate change, with injustice, with poverty and with ourselves simply fall away. Inner peace unfolds, which then radiates outwards stimulating others to go within and change also...

"If you feel called upon to alleviate suffering in the world, that is a very noble thing to do, but remember not to focus exclusively on the outer; otherwise you will encounter frustration and despair. Without profound change in human consciousness, the world's suffering is a bottomless pit. So don't let your compassion become too one-sided. Empathy with someone else's pain or lack, and a desire to help, need to be balanced with a deeper realisation of the eternal nature of all life and the ultimate illusion of all pain. Then let your peace flow into whatever you do and you will be working on the levels of effect and cause simultaneously."
Eckhart Tolle

Indeed one man can change the world. However, he or she is not going to do it by trying to shape the outer circumstances first. That's like the tail trying to wag the dog and it will always ultimately fail. The way to do it, is by changing ourselves from the inside and let that shape the things we do. In this way, we will have an enormous impact because we are continually grounding soul within our lives.

Breaking down to build up
In my truth this is already happening. More and more people are waking up and changing our world by unfolding Higher Self awareness. The reason many are not witnessing on the outside the beauty and harmony they feel they should now be seeing, is because we first have to go through a period of 'breaking down'. We need to break down the old harmony to make space for the new.

Make no mistake, we ARE changing our world for the better of all life. However we are going to have to go through some challenging times before we see the inner light reflected into the outer world. It is all a question of self belief. Whatever happens in the outer, we must keep peeling away inner doubt - of course it is this doubt that is causing the old world reality to linger.

So let us have faith. Let us keep digging away and finding the nuggets of inner gold, always trusting that we can each change the world for the better of all. If we do that, undoubtedly it will be so!

Chris