It’s a conversation I have a couple of times a week in the clinic: ‘What can I do’? Sometimes it’s about self-improvement or bigger aspects like climate change. Lately, of course, it’s been about CV. The statement is usually accompanied by resignation and possibly, ‘it’s too hard’ or ‘I’m just one person.’

There’s generally a fear of moving against the tide and speaking up, or of being too busy.

I could answer this many ways, but here’s my take on it ... and it speaks to who we are, down deep and to the frequency that we generate and emit to the world. The tipping point all starts with you.

We all need to do what we can. We all need to play our part. Most of us were not born to change the world on our own, but all of us were born to fulfill our potential: to be happy, to love, to contribute. 
(Actually, I believe we are already filled to the brim with our ‘potential’. Our journey is to recover who we already are: our state of being. To truly ‘be’, does have the power to change the world).

In this particular context, I am going to say the greatest source of unhappiness is not being able to like oneself. Here, happiness implies that we have self-worth or value that we attribute to ourselves and not attributed to recognition by others. It would follow then, that ‘I am of benefit to the community’ or ‘I am of benefit to another’ may be the sole thing that allows us to appreciate our worth?

As mentioned, a consequential matter here is that contribution to others does not imply it is on display for others to see.

One of the reasons for my being in this lifetime is to recognise that the only tasks I have are my own and not to take on other people’s roles. Also, it is not for people to impose their roles upon me.

So, it is not for me to decide if my contributions are helpful. That is for others to decide and it’s not for me to interfere. In fact, there have been thousands of times in my career when I have not known if I’ve made a contribution! But, I centre myself with the knowledge that my contribution does not have to be evident. All we need is the is the internal sense that ‘I am of benefit to another’ or more specifically, a consciousness of contribution.

In short, happiness and peace are the consciousness of contribution.

People, in general, seek recognition. Today, more so than ever before. I believe it’s because people want to have regard for themselves. They want to feel valued or that they have value. Recognition becomes a yardstick for contribution. Conversely, if people don’t get recognised, they stop contributing in the end. This cannot be our fate. Because if we fail to act, for our self-improvement, climate change or the deeper issues behind global health, we will have zero choice but to swim with the current of other’s wishes, opinions or social norms.

If we want to change ourselves, our relationships or the world, there is no freedom in the desire that the change must be a grand gesture and be something that is seen, influences thousands or gains recognition. Freedom is only achieved through happiness (which is only defined by the self and not others) and contribution.

A true sense of contribution means that you will have no need of recognition from other sources but will come from the sensibility of knowing ‘I have been of worth to someone or something’. Ultimately, the feeling of contribution creates a sense of community, whether it’s a community of two, or a community of millions. I think this is part of our process of evolution, this community feel and our ability to contribute to it. If we are individually going to have a sense of belonging, which I think we a desperately seeking, then ‘community’ and ‘contribution’ are vital. 

So, ok ... the bare bones. We don’t need big, grand gestures to feel we are contributing. Most of it will go unnoticed and the important thing is our ‘consciousness of contribution’ and to know that we ‘are of worth’. It may not mean that today you planted a grove of trees or you got arrested at a climate change rally or sharing your thought over a beer with the Deli Lama was really worth the trip. It may simply mean that you decided these thoughts were worth passing on in an email to others? Who knows? Maybe your email goes down the line 100 times? What a contribution you facilitated! And without recognition!

The point of this article is that for us to change the world, we start by changing who we are. 
We learn self-acceptance: that is ok and valuable to be who we are and that we are immeasurable just as we are. 

We learn to have confidence in others: unconditional belief that others with do the right thing, even when they don’t! Doubt will keep us right where we are.

We contribute to others: we develop self-worth and a sense of community in our interpersonal relationships (near and far). Keep to your own tasks and don’t take on those of others. It’s ok to sever ties with those who interfere with yours (this circles back to self-acceptance).

If we can achieve this (or even some of it), we become those who people want to be near or listen to. This is not the aim, but a consequence. See you at the tipping point!

​Be well.

This is an article I posted towards the end of last year on a private Facebook page for my patients called the Wellness Wall.  It was in response to sentiment at the time.  I thought I’d share it here.  It’s called ...

         The Tide and Tipping Point of Public Opinion (And how YOU can change the world)

At some point in 2020, have you ever wondered ‘how we got here’? Obviously, the CV king tide washed in but here I’m talking about the social, cultural, economic oil-slick that came with it.

The social changes we now swim in are constant. This year, the current has been fierce and sadly, too strong for many. Some who drowned were competent swimmers but were caught unprepared. Many in Australia needed lifejackets. Most telling is the number of people who couldn’t swim. Most of us headed for higher ground and are waiting for the tide to recede. Some built boats and sold them to others: they’ve done quite well.

Social change, civil unrest, inequality, injustice and climate change were in-your-face apparent before this year ever happened. Think revolution, demonstrations and protests in Hong Kong, France and the United States and across the world.

But I’ve been intrigued by the flow of public opinion this year. How easy has it been for people to take up a cause, when the cause hasn’t been based on fact. I’m intrigued about how the thoughts of many have been controlled by the machinations of the few. Rather than a narrative based on research and fact, we have been drowning in a sea of fear and vested opinions and directives.

I read a study last week that may shed some light on how this happens and ironically, how the same methods may get us moving again. The question that the paper asked was, ‘what percentage of a population does a minority have to reach the reverse or sway the majority viewpoint?’ The tipping point, they ascertained, is only 25%. At that percentage and above, the contrarians (I love that word) converted 72 to 100 percent of their target groups and before the minority started their intervention, the group/s were in 100% in accordance with their initial stance.

They found a 24% or less minority changed nothing (actually, the maximum change in opinion was 6% at minorities of this size).

Based on computer modelling, they predicted minorities of 25% or more would have an effect of a population up to or at least, 100,000 people.

What tips the scale?

Part of the problem in trying to change opinion is that, on a larger scale, you may never actually realise when you have a 25% committed minority, and many apparently give up without knowing they may be a few percent away from achieving the goal.

They were unwavering. They wholeheartedly expressed new habits or suggestions and constantly exposed others to it until they started to replicate the actions.

It helps to have a lack of competing minorities which dilutes opinion. This, it’s said, may be part of the problem today, where rather than two or three opinions (or groups), we have multiple competing interests as part of the modern trends towards individualistic viewpoints.

It helps to have regular contact with other members of the minority. This is important even when there is a critical mass.

Whether you’re in a business or part of a social change in the larger community, people spend time trying to align with other people and demonstrate etiquette that shows you’re part of the gang. This has the capacity to lift a business up, or bring one down. All you need is a strong minority. Alternatively, the minority can be non-caring as long as they are steadfast in their apathy.

The study also mentions the online environment, particularly because it’s possible to have a significant number of exchanges, including those you’d not normally meet or influence.

Finally, consider this: can a robot represent a member of a committed minority? Can robots actually drive the change to influence real people? According to the study, ‘In a space where people can’t distinguish people from bots, yes. If you get a concerted, focused effort by a group of agents acting as a minority view, they can be really effective.’

The real point of this article is in support those of us who have been feeling overwhelmed and without a voice in recent times. Part of my purpose in starting the Wellness Wall was to respond to the sentiment I hear and feel within the clinic. For most of us, our purpose isn’t to change the world by ourselves. But I think it is part of our purpose to do everything that we can do to aid a healthy collective consciousness. Know that we have a voice and together, perhaps we form a strong and healthy minority?

​Be well.

Whether or not you believe or participate in such things New Year’s resolutions or Valentine’s Day, I think they at least offer a chance to ponder and reassess life for ourselves. 

If I were to ask you, what resolutions you made for this year and you were to reply that you didn’t, perhaps because you don’t believe in them, that’s fair enough.  But, do you consider why?  Why don’t people keep resolutions?  Why don’t you keep them? What’s the deeper perspective?  What can be learnt from this perspective?  

Now, this may seem like it’s taking up too much hard drive space six beers deep on New Year’s Eve, but it has wider implications for our evolution and survival as a species and for our planet. 

We tend to define socio-cultural aspects in relation to decades, so I spent some time recently contemplating the 10’s and wondered what the next decade will bring?  Aside from deciding what I will wear to avoid embarrassment in decades to come (back to short shorts, guys, really?) I explored the current reality we are facing as individuals and collectively.  Our health is intrinsically linked with a global reality, and our reality is the world is becoming more unstable and unsustainable.  But, we do have a choice to invest in a hazy, dysfunctional world or a new one full of possibility?

Very recently I read the pleas of an author who, in 2007, recognised that life as we know it in ecological, economic, social, political and cultural arenas, had reached a fatal tipping point.  Change now or perish was the message.  Some 13 years on, I wondered what that author thought and felt of the world today?  Was he happy?  Have we done well?  Was his warning heeded?  The author’s name is Ervin Lazlo.  Ever heard of him?  He has written 83 books and twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize.

In 2017, Professor Stephen Hawking stated humans needed to colonise a new planet and soon.  We had around 100 years to keep our species alive.  His expanded theory is that the chance of disaster on Earth adds up over time and because we’ve been relatively disaster-free, it’s a near certainty to happen.  He had originally stated we had 1000 to 10,000 years but revised it down to 100 years to establish life on another planet and 600 years before we had to leave earth.   He said, ‘With climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics and population growth, our own planet is increasingly precarious.’ 

In an interview with the BBC, Hawking also said, ‘ I fear evolution has inbuilt greed and aggression into the human genome.’  

I believe there is a growing tendency for our lives to be veiled in a fearful and dramatic energy.  I don’t watch the popular news for these reasons.  With the rise of social media the term ‘disaster fatigue’ has arisen, highlighting our loss of motivation due to prolonged exposure of news coverage.  It’s important to recognise this fear factor in our immediate lives and lives at large and make a choice to move beyond it.   From a health perspective, fear is at the base of many illnesses and pain.  It starts early in life and is exacerbated by our experiences and environment.  I believe most of our search for meaning involves shedding these fears to reestablish our true sense of self that we came into the world with before it was bombarded with fears and threats to our survival.  There are enough fear based situations in our early lives that we already take on as part of who we are.  These don’t need to be accentuated by social and environmental factors as we grow older.  Conversely, we also don’t want to make individual contributions to a global consciousness of fear, because it affects entire countries and the planet as a whole.

Anyone who doubts the planet, and therefore our health, is changing, needs to get seriously invested.  The fact that our lives and the climate are changing, is beyond doubt.  The debate seems to exist around whether this is a natural cycle of things or whether we as humans, are contributing or causing this?  The earth is now the warmest it’s been in 120,000 years.  Part of the consequence of this is rising carbon dioxide concentrations.  However, are we as a species contributing to this?  The answer is yes.  For example, 18 of the last 19 years have been the warmest on record and concentrations of carbon dioxide are the highest they’ve been in millions of years.  Despite attempts to reduce carbon footprints, in 2018 carbon dioxide emissions rose 3.4 percent in the US over the year prior.

We, in Australia, don’t need to look to far afield to notice the effects of climate change.  This summer, the devastating effects of a significant proportion of the country being on fire has been overwhelming.  The collective response by everyday Australians to disaster relief has been outstanding.  I believe this is in large part because it’s who we are as a nation, but also because so very many have been unable to escape some personal association, whether it be because of the heat levels this summer, the sensationally poor air quality and smoke laden skies, the lack of rain, dust storms, reduced crop availability in supermarkets or rising vegetable prices … 

What if, in the near future, you order your morning latte and your barista says to you, ‘that’ll be $20 thanks’, will you hand it over?  Currently 60% of the planet’s wild coffee species are facing extinction due to disease and pests (higher temperatures), climate change and deforestation.  Whilst it hasn’t yet affected the world’s coffee supply, it’s likely it will.  This will imply developing (genetically modifying) the coffee bean to resist the consequences of these changes.  You may still be able to get your fix, but just not as nature intended.

Change is no longer something that may happen in the future,  It is here now and we are experiencing it on a daily basis in one form or another.  Change is not an option and it’s something that you and I have to make a reality for not only for generational survival but for our current state of health.  To assume that things will take their course and be ok, is suicidal. 

Please think about this as we begin our new decade.

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​                                                To be, or not to be: that is the question:
                                                Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
                                                The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
                                                Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
                                                And by opposing end them?