Sometimes it just happens to me out of the blue. I’ll be watching the news, and suddenly it’s there — a feeling of powerlessness, or even discouragement. I see the terrible images coming from places like Gaza, Sudan, or Ukraine. Or, closer to home, footage of demonstrations against the arrival of an asylum center, or — as in recent weeks — political debates on TV.

And in those moments, I find myself asking in despair: What can I possibly do? How can I, on my own, do anything to make the world a little more bearable, a little more beautiful? A little more human, with more care for one another? Perhaps you recognize that feeling.

In those moments, I feel grateful that over the past years I’ve made a way of being and living my own — one that helps me bounce back quickly and regain a sense of agency. The Transformational Presence approach gives me concrete, practical tools to acknowledge that feeling of powerlessness and consciously choose a different way of relating to what I see on TV, in the newspaper, or on social media.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” and that is exactly what Will Pie (see the quote above), though in different words, expresses as well.

Alan Seale, founder of Transformational Presence, recently wrote in his Substack blog “Choice and Possibility” words that deeply resonated with me:

“It’s up to us what possibility or perspective we choose as our lens, which region of the field of possibilities we choose to inhabit, the quality of the space we commit to holding, how we name the energy we choose to walk in.
(…) What name do you give to the ground on which you choose to walk, the air you choose to breathe, the energy container you choose to hold your life?”

In other words, as human beings, we have the ability to consciously choose a particular state of being — the kind of energy we want to radiate. Nothing outside of us has to change to make that possible; it’s an internal process. Ultimately, the question comes down to this: every day, every hour, every minute even — who do you choose to be?

Is the energy you radiate, and the behavior that flows from it, a reflection of the world you wish to see?

Maybe you’d like to carry that question with you in the coming week. Allow yourself to choose a particular quality to embody consciously. Who are you being invited to be, so that you can once again experience a sense of agency and influence in the world around you?

For me, it’s sometimes courage, clarity, or patience. Other times, it’s compassion or trust. Maybe it’s the same for you — or something else entirely.

Check in with yourself this week and ask: Who do I want to be? Then make that choice, and notice what it brings you — and the effect it has on your surroundings. In this way, together, we begin to create ‘a new world’.

I wish you a rich and meaningful experience!