Change your life from the inside out.
Inertia — Nº149
I’ve always thought most people aren’t ready to win the lottery. People who suddenly come across an unfathomable sum of money almost inevitably return to square one because the world shows them the sum of what they believe. Because money doesn’t change you; it shows you more of who you are.
This principle applies to other examples — a paradigm shift we’re all beginning to notice. So think about it like this: the universe is you-inverse; everything “outside” and around is, in many ways, a reflection of the world inside you.
This week I found what will probably be one of my favourite quotes of all time:
“People have intellectualised reality so much they’re not a part of it anymore”.
Intellectualisation helps us solve problems and understand situations — but it’s becoming more and more dangerous as we use it to avoid feeling. It may look like you’re dealing with the reality of a situation, but really, you’re distancing yourself from it.
We’re in an age where we overthink and rationalise everything, from emotions to life choices, rather than listen to our intuition. It severs the connection we have with our deeper selves. Imagine allowing a bad habit to fall deep into the well of your inner beliefs and take control. We endlessly gather information rather than check with our inner guidance. We compulsively analyse our feelings instead of allowing ourselves to “feel”. We view people as objects and scrutinise them instead of intimately relating with them.
Too much time in our heads disconnects us from our bodies, hearts and souls. Things that are real. We lose track of everything so intensely that the result is a lifeless existence where we lack the resources to cope and connect and thrive.
The 2022 Nobel Prize winners announced the unsettling discovery that our universe can’t be both local and real. “Real” means a car can have wheels even when no one is looking. “Local” means this car can only be influenced by its immediate surroundings. What this means is we’re so used to perceiving and possibly manipulating things at a distance that we fail to realise this is an illusion.
Do you really believe the moon is not there when you are not looking?
— Albert Einstein
In other words, the world is a mirror, always reflecting what you believe to be true. You’re not going to change what you see by breaking the mirror. You need to go directly to the script projecting it all.
To change your life, change your roots. Life changes when there is pure awareness — a seed of understanding needing to be planted in the rich soil of your inner world. When you look inward, gentle rains of contemplation water seedlings with insight, and you till the gardens of your mind to turn over old assumptions. Making way for new growth.
Your life works from the inside out, and if you want something from it — a new job, a healed relationship, a sense of purpose and vitality — don’t try to change what’s around you. Shed those beliefs blocking you from what you want. Ask yourself, why are you attracting it? Why are you keeping it? Why are you learning the same lessons over and over? Self-work makes incredible outcomes materialise at astonishing speed.
External events will always billow through your life like gusts of wind. But their effects are far less jarring or destructive when your roots go deep into the bedrock of self-knowledge. Buffeted but not shaking, you stand tall like oak — leaves dancing in the same winds that uproot fragile saplings.
The real world will change and shift like kaleidoscopes. Beautiful but ephemeral. And our “local” outer lives will always reflect our inner worlds. So, as the winds blow and the seasons turn, be mindful that growth springs from mindful cultivation. And when the roots are sturdy, the fruits we bear will be as well.