I have become a true believer in mindfulness, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence. I believe that until we learn about ourselves, until we can find love and compassion for ourselves, until we can truly understand who we are; we will never truly be able to love or care for others to full capacity. Once we have uncovered who we are, we can see that we are actually all moving through the journey of life. Once we can grasp hold of the concept of shared humanness that we all possess....THEN we can truly make a difference.
Being mindful in our daily lives, being fully present - with no expectation to "be" anything, or "achieve" anything. It is in this space that we can begin to discover who we really are. We can learn to cultivate kindness, generosity, acceptance, willpower, joy, gentleness, peace, and patience. Adapting to those positive character traits allows us to then express in our lives the examples we want to set. We will begin to radiate these experiences in our lives and begin producing understanding, loyalty, confidentiality, commitment, and all the other positive characteristics that we are also seeking in others. By producing it first in ourselves, we pave the way for others to follow.
In setting the example through our actions, through our lives, we surround ourselves with people who begin to pick up on those cues and follow our example. Those positive actions begin to trickle down, and we begin to be the light in the darkness. We begin to ever so subtly change the culture we work and live in. We begin to "be the change" we seek.
