âHELLO! Look at me. HELLO! I am so ZEN. This is BLOOD. This is NOTHING. Hello. Everything is nothing, and it’s so cool to be ENLIGHTENED. Like me.â
â Chuck Palahniuk
If Iâve read one post on change, Iâve read a million.
Unfortunately, they all come under the same rubric: change is necessary; and you need to immediately adopt said authorâs programme; and you need to get it NOW or your life wonât be worth living.
But, I constantly question (oh…yes…I…do) why, if itâs so *bleep* obvious, donât we bear witness to change on an epic scale (or any scale)?
Let me make this very clear. Change never happens from the outside-in, i.e. by someone telling you to change; it only ever happens from the inside-out, i.e. by insight (something falls from your head and lays on your heart). I mean you get âitâ on a spiritual level. In short, youâre powerfully moved and it sticks, forever.
If you go down a few levels, what this means is that your thinking changes, which translates into new behaviour. Thatâs not quite true. Your thinking doesnât change, but, in most cases, you no longer identify with your previous thoughts. (The bit thatâs really powerful is to enquire who or what it is thatâs able to observe your thoughts?)
At this stage, the change lobby will jump in and ask for the Insight Manual. Strange as it is, and itâs no different to the idea of intrinsic motivation (albeit even thatâs not enough to bring about change save on a superficial level), you cannot exhort or template-up an insight programme. At best, all you can do is create the right environment, change the dialogue to inside-out and hope that something manifests on a higher level. Of course, that hardly makes for a marketable programme and thatâs probably why you haven’t seen many more people talk about things so fundamentally, but that doesnât mean that insight-based learning and coaching doesnât have a place.
The thing is, from the inside-out, and in recognising and understanding the link between thought, feeling and consciousness, everythingâs different. And itâs easy to spot: where our attention goes, so our daily activity flows: change the centre of our attention, i.e. our thinking self, and so the output changes. (I like the way Michael Neill talks about the difference between making different cookies or looking to the source, i.e. the oven.)
Where does this leave you…if youâre interested in change? I only ask because, as someone whoâs previously lapped up one strategy after another, and who now understands how specious the material was, I wonder if you too have begun to explore the inner terrain as a way of understanding why you canât bring about change in your life? (Remember the Socrates quote: âThe unexamined life is not worth living.â)
If you havenât looked within then I can guarantee that however many books you read, or videos you watch or talks you hear, they wonât make a scintilla of difference. Yes, you might think your willpower rock hard, but even that fades after time when you realise youâve slipped back into your old, stale thinking.
As Iâve said already, the only guarantee of change is when you gain the necessary insight. More than that you disidentify from your thoughts, positive or negative, and stay focused on the now, the only moment there is.
I accept this is all a bit Woo-woo, but that doesn’t mean itâs irrelevant. Far from it. In fact, if you understand the link between thought and your actions, youâll immediately see the fallacy in the outside-in movement and why all change starts and ends with self-inquiry.