Is the Path to World Peace Through Your Psyche?

Last week a friend shared the story circulating on social media about the human rights lawyer, Steven Donziger who tried to go after Chevron for dumping tons of toxic chemicals in the Ecuadorian rainforest (which they’ve admitted to) and lost, only to be counter-prosecuted for contempt of court. Donzinger was sentenced to 6 months in prison. One of the judges involved in his case, Loretta Preska, is a leader of the Chevron-funded Federalist Society.

As I’m sure you’re gathering, this story is very sad. I mean, “human rights lawyer stands up for the environment and gets tossed in jail, instead” is not a headline you’d ever hope to see in the United States, but here we are.

A few days before learning of Donzinger’s case I was listening to NPR. They were interviewing a journalist, Lesley Blume, about the Manhattan Project (you know the one—the atomic bomb test). According to the history books, it was a massive success and nobody was hurt in the process. (That’s certainly what I always thought). According to Blume, the fallout radiation did reach private citizens, including a group of teenagers at a dance camp nearby who unwittingly played in the ashes from the fallout. Only one of those girls survived past age 30. Despite warnings from scientists, the military personnel on the project chose not to evacuate people who lived within the dangerous radius because doing so would tip the Japanese off to the “secret” that the US had a bomb like no other. They chose to sacrifice unsuspecting citizens for military gain—and then they chose to turn that into a secret, telling the press that no one had been harmed, etc etc.

So, okay: both of these stories are enough to make you want to throw in the towel and give up on the world.

They’re also unsurprising. At this point, I think most of us are feeling fatigued by news of systemic corruption and cover-ups across all industries. I mean, is it any surprise that distrust and paranoia have swept the country?? Maybe we can hold space for a little more empathy around that. It’s frustrating and it’s disruptive, but it’s not entirely unfounded.

Coming to terms with stories where systems that are built to protect and serve you are actually hurting you is hard. It’s overwhelming. It’s enraging. It’s betrayal. It’s trauma. It leads to a lot of people searching for new sources to trust—and those sources aren’t always reliable, either—which leads to chaos, frustration, and division… which is kind of where we are right now, isn’t it?

It might make you believe world peace isn’t possible.

IT IS. WE JUST NEED A DIFFERENT APPROACH.

First, let’s take a moment to shake these stories off. Like, literally. You know how dogs shake their bodies to relieve stress? (If you didn’t, now you do.) Shaking can have the same effect on your nervous system. So stand up, do a little shake, and sit back down because it’s about to get a lot more inspiring.

Did you shake?!

Don’t be embarrassed, no one can see you.

Okay, I’m going to trust you shook.

Feels better, right? Your nervous system just did a little reset. Your body needs to move sometimes to get that energy out of your aura. Add that to your tool kit next time the news triggers you.

Now for the good part.

As my friend and I lamented about the state of the world, he said this: “If you can’t achieve world peace, at least work towards inner peace.”

That’s it. That’s the good part.

Here’s why:

We get SO caught up in “how we can help” for situations on a scale that NO ONE PERSON can battle alone (just ask Donzinger) that after an initial well-meaning effort, we either assume helplessness when it doesn’t pan out OR we burn out because the battles keep piling up ad nauseam.

When we take a moment to pause our inclination to fix the EXTERNAL world, and focus on our INTERNAL world, the external world benefits. This is not to say we can’t march when we feel called, or call our representatives, or donate to just causes—it just means that WHEN YOU FEEL DESPAIR, prioritizing inner peace will benefit you and the causes you believe in. Everyone wins.

modeling is everything

There’s an old adage that when you heal yourself you heal seven generations of your family both forward AND backward.

I believe this comes from Native American shamans and I am sorry to say I don’t know exactly where it originated, BUT here’s what I do know: epigenetics, the scientific study of how your behavior can change your genes, is proving this wisdom to be true. (Good grief do I LOVE a good ‘science backs ancient wisdom’ story).

According to epigenetics, when a parent heals a trauma wound, their DNA changes to reflect that, which means they are less likely to pass the effects of that wound (depression, anxiety, etc) to their offspring. I mean, the “holy shit” takeaway here is that healing changes your DNA at all. The icing on the cake is that you actually CAN heal your children before having them by healing yourself.

If you already have children, you’re not exempt!! Because you know better than anyone that kids are sponges—they do as you do, not as you say. The BEST way to teach a child to be well mentally is to be well mentally, yourself. Your resilience and self-care will be mirrored by your child. So when you heal, they heal. And their DNA will change in the process and it will heal their children and their children’s children, and so on.

World peace is a collective effort—but you can’t force people to change.

If you’ve ever been in a relationship with anyone, romantic or not, you know this by now: you can’t force people to change. You can’t force them to care about the things you care about. You can COERCE them through gaslighting, manipulation, or fear-mongering, but… it usually doesn’t end well because you’re not changing root values, you’re just altering behavior. That works against you because not only is the new behavior unlikely to stick, the methods by which you were able to produce that behavior will cause resentment, which may very well be projected onto the new behavior.

In other words: stop trying to scare people into new behavior. It’s a short-term solution that backfires.

Modeling is more effective than you think here, too.

People chase trends. They also tend to want what other people have when they have it good. If you are dedicated to your own growth and healing, it’s going to pay off for you. People are going to see that—and they’re going to want it. They may even start paying attention to what you value, recognizing how it has served you emotionally and otherwise.

The saying is true: if you can be the change, you can make the change.

ADDED PERKS: Inner peace Protects You From Burnout and Brain Fog

Speaking of values, if activism is your jam, you already know how exhausting it can be to hold space for the causes that are near and dear to your heart. If you don’t know how to hold space for difficult or uncomfortable feelings, you will become a reactive rage machine. And while anger absolutely has its place and is an effective energy to call upon to rally the troops, when it’s unbridled it can feel very scary to interact with, which repels people from engaging with you or the causes you care about.

When you turn your empathy for the world around and start prioritizing empathy for yourself, you will become a better activist. You’ll learn to hold space for the uncomfortable experiences that live inside your body, which allows you to be an incredibly grounding force when working the field with other people who are experiencing trauma and heartache. BE THAT GROUNDING ENERGY FOR THE PEOPLE AND CAUSES YOU CARE ABOUT. You might have to put yourself first for a while and press pause on the causes you care about, which will feel uncomfortable, but I promise you will come out the other end stronger and more resourced to help where it’s needed.

And Finally, INNER PEACE MAKES TRANSPARENCY POSSIBLE

In the stories I highlighted earlier, the through-line was secrecy. On a global scale, transparency is the only way to establish trust. It’s also vital on a personal scale, isn’t it?

Think about how scary it can be to be fully transparent with the people in your life.

Often, even if we know we are coming from a good place, we get nervous that our community won’t understand right away—they might overreact, or worse, turn on us.

Now imagine that fear applied to our world leaders. Even if intentions are good, the possibility that their constituents will turn on them is enough to keep them shadowy. There’s a reason the saying “ask for forgiveness, not permission,” exists. It’s easier to clean something up (or hide it all together) than it is to announce it and get everyone on board.

But something happens when you start to develop a sense of inner peace: you become less reactive. Even when you DON’T agree with someone, you listen. You are centered in rational discourse. Words don’t trigger emotional responses because you recognize they’re just tools for communication. You feel strong in your ability to say your piece and to come to a compromise where needed. <— I mean, imagine if everyone had this much integrity!

Some people aren’t even transparent with themselves. This is another malady that gets resolved through the process of self-compassion. If you are struggling to be compassionate with yourself, it’s unlikely you will be able to access it for others. The same goes for others who lack compassion.

Secrets and shame do not exist in a compassionate society.

In short: if you crave world peace, but you’re not actively seeking inner peace, you’re not helping.

There is no world peace until we each vow to go inward. Those folks you wish you could “get through to?” They won’t be changing anything until they choose to go inward, too. That’s when people open up, that’s when they learn to how to have constructive dialogue, and that’s when they learn to compromise.

The barrier to entry is that going inward is terrifying to almost everyone—and seems pointless to many—not to mention many cultures still vilify it as soft. But look, I just wrote about 1200 words outlining the benefits and I hardly scratched the surface.

So maybe it’s time to press pause on the finger pointing and make a conscious effort to slow the spiral of division. Maybe it’s time to stop blaming global conflicts and get real with where you are conflicted internally. Maybe it’s time to become the person you always wished you had in your corner, so you could be that person for everyone else.

Maybe you’re the rock that starts the ripple.