Do you have the nerve to demand peace from yourself?

People who have the desire to end their inner wars, will be on the front lines of peace. The fight for peace begins within each of us. When you declare a ceasefire within yourself, you bring a peaceful vibration with you everywhere you go. It can be that easy, and there’s no need to be in effort at all.

There is a catch. The hard part is that you actually have to do it. It’s easy to set new intentions, and another thing entirely to do whatever difficult soul searching work it takes to carry them out.

You may recognize this famous photo, taken during an antiwar demonstration in 1967.

The 1960′s ushered in a revolution in ways of thinking and living, life. A tumultuous time, it was marked by both an end to innocence*, as well as a longing for more of the same. The old was explosively giving way to the new, as people all around the earth were born into a new era.

*Innocence Is defined in this example as ‘not knowing’ or ‘unaware’.

You already have what it takes to help heal the world you live in.

You can create healing on this planet. The trick is to begin with yourself, and do your own healing from within. You are not responsible for healing the rest of us, and you don’t have the power to decide who heals.

All healing is self healing, which means that others heal from within themselves too. You can never do someone else’s healing for them, because it's not your job. However, you have an important effect on how and whether others choose to heal themselves. You might be unaware of the power you possess to do this.

Today is a perfect day to begin dreaming a brand new dream, a beautiful grandiose dream, a dream that can change the whole future of humanity, dream.

When you give yourself full rein to dream, without effort or worry over whether your dreams can become real, you open up to the most prolific creative part of you - your spirit.

As you allow yourself to step into a world you imagine, your powerful spirit gets to work. Previously imagined blocks toward your dreams fall away - you can feel a good dream deeply in your body. Even if it’s not ‘real’ yet in your day to day world, it’s alive and real inside of you. It is your job to protect your dream, and to nurture it, own it, love it.

A student of mine asked me some specific questions about change and how to handle it, and inspired me to write this.

Here’s my take on change and growth, and how to navigate what sometimes feels like a bumpy ride.

It all begins with you: You want to change, and you decide to make positive changes in your life. Perhaps you’ve done this before, maybe many times. Some of the changes you’ve gone through in your life came about as a result of you choosing to change, and some of them might have seemed as if they just ‘happened’ to you. Either way, change is upon you.

Whose truth are you following? Who do you believe? 

Do you need me to agree with what you believe? You might believe something is your truth, but that doesn't mean it's mine too. Is there room here for us to disagree, peacefully?

When a belief becomes The Truth, conflicts erupt. If your truth doesn't match the truth of another person, and there's no space for both truths to exist, what happens?

It may begin with a wish, a new picture for a better way of living.

Perhaps there is a deep desire to let go of the status quo, because it simply doesn’t work anymore. It’s time to get out of the way – here comes the future. It’s evolution, baby!

Revolution comes from within. Before any social change is created in the outer world, in the United States and abroad, it first of all begins within. True revolution is not imposed on us from some force ‘out there’. We create it; when we are ready for new growth and change, it comes easily.

Spiritual activism is about consciousness.

When you become conscious about something, any energy that was stuck before you became conscious starts to move. The more consciousness you embrace, the more you decide to become aware, the more movement happens. You become a spiritual activist. Change follows quickly.

All change begins within, sometimes starting out quietly, rumbling in the background.

You may already know how good it feels to receive a real hello.

When someone gives you a true, non-judgmental hello, she or he is giving you a spiritual hello. That person is saying hello to the true you, and that can be a beautiful feeling, and a healing for you.

When another person says hello to you, to the real you, it feels nice. You are welcomed and included, you are being seen. You’re being acknowledged for existing as you are right here and now, and for having value.

Your consciousness changes the world in which you live.

When you decide to wake up and become aware, that simple action changes your world.

Of course, once you do all that, you’ll find it very difficult to go back to sleep and ignore what’s happening around you, or worse, pretend it isn’t. Even if it’s hard to know, it’s harder to be unconscious.

We certainly live in an illuminating time, which isn’t to say that it’s easy here on earth.

There is a big rescue effort underway in the United States to bring back the American Dream and save the endangered species known as the middle class.

According to sources, this species has been under attack since approximately 1980, and is in danger of becoming extinct.

The middle class has apparently had its version of the American Dream stomped on and severely damaged by strong opponents. The attacks continue to this day, and the Middle Class is fighting for its life.

Many years ago, when I was in my 20's, my friends and I would talk about the revolution that was to come.

We believed that things weren't right, there was so much pain on earth, and that the coming revolution would make everything fair and peaceful.

Our picture was that things were going to change for the better on planet earth, someday.

We had a vague notion that life as we knew it would have to go away, so that a new way of being could come into existence, and that it might get messy first. But it would be totally worth it because life would become easier and more fair for the people who'd been suffering. Plus all the mean people would somehow go away too.