No matter where you stand or in which direction you look, it’s clear that the world needs healing. Beyond the pandemic, 2020 has shined a brighter light on systemic racism, structures that keep disadvantaged people from advancing, gross inequalities in access to basic needs, and the precariousness of our climate situation, among other things.
If you’re an empath, a healer, a person who cares about the future of our world, it’s easy to look around and feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of what requires healing. Where do we even start?
Our Escape Patterns
We can be quick to spot all the places outside ourselves that require healing, the dark corners that are in need of light.
As Pema Chodron teaches, this is our habit to escape the pain we feel when we see what’s broken. We believe that if we point our finger and put the blame “out there,” then we will feel better.
Whether we’re agreeing with or speaking back to the pundits on TV or marching in protest, we feel better — at least temporarily. We are hooked into the emotional charge, and for a brief moment feel a sense of control.
We repeat this pattern over and over, even though it doesn’t last. Even worse, when we direct our focus to all the places and people that need to change, we burn ourselves out before we even make a dent.
Protests are good tools for creating awareness, but rarely do they lead to lasting change.
Cultivating Our Inner Light
The festival of Chanukah teaches us that we can offer our healing to the world by cultivating our own inner light.
This can be a challenge because we are conditioned to believe that self-care is selfish and that we must put ourselves last, especially when others rely on us.
But the reality is the opposite. Serving ourselves first is the path to upleveling our service to others.
In a letter published in 1980, the great Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote that
The Chanukah Lights remind us in a most obvious way that illumination begins at home, within oneself … But though it begins at home, it does not stop there. Such is the nature of light that when one kindles a light for one’s own benefit, it benefits also all who are in the vicinity. Indeed, the Chanukah Lights are expressly meant to illuminate the “outside,” symbolically alluding to the duty to bring light also to those who, for one reason or another, still walk in darkness.
Change Happens From the Bottom Up
This timeless wisdom is reminiscent of Ghandi’s “be the change you want to see in the world” and other timeless wisdom.
Revolutions that create cultural shifts happen from the bottom and work their way up. begin with the individual.
The change we seek to make and the healing we wish to effect comes from each of us, individually, doing our inner work in the sacred space of our homes.