8 Daze of Change

Change is a surprisingly hard thing to do: especially positive change.

And when you realize your individuality barely matters in this social system, that the big picture is much more important than your overall existence,
its ever harder to figure out how to create positive change
that will better your community
or even further,
the world.

But before you can change much out there, you must look in the psychological and theoretical mirror, and change yourself.

What is harder, changing yourself or changing the world?

Considering changing the world, or even changing your community or circle takes more than just your own enthusiasm, cooperation and effort, it takes the combined force of many... well, at least changing your own habits is all you.

With the lessons of 2011 in hand, I have come up with 10 ways of change for myself in 2012. The most important things in my life are health, happiness, & pride.

By changing the way I use my money, I can be more conscious of how I feed into the social system: why should we constantly buy poisonous food, or cheaply-developed clothing and shoes, or unnecessary products for entertainment and stress relief? If everything starts and ends with money, I want to be in control of it.

My eating habits are especially important considering everything I put into my body will have an influence over my pain levels and ability to handle stress. By watching my body while going through a vegetarian and then vegan diet, I can hopefully come up with the best diet for myself.

Everyone plays games, meets with friends, keeps up with responsibilities... very few people can be in one particular moment with a clear head and actually know how to relax the mind and body. By learning to redirect my energy, through practicing meditation, reiki and possibly even yoga at least once a month, I hope to positively change my habits, my levels of stress and my overall lifestyle.

Spreading factual, evidence-based knowledge is the only way to change the social system and my place within it. By challenging myself to quit my harmful medication for a month and document the process of the pain, relief and obstacles, I hope to raise awareness on the medicinal marijuana issue, personal freedom and other important social problems. Ignorance, which seems to run rampant in a society based on fulfilling commercial wants, also ties into my goal of changing the system. The challenge of compiling evidence, analysis and developing prospective positive change through research and potential implementation is an important part of bettering this social system and my place in it.

My other personal goals of learning Italian, properly training my dog and coming out with some hiphop music over 2012 will help better my life and will transfer to those I interact with in my circle. I still need to come up with 4 more goals to better myself!

My circl3 goals are harder to come up with: I only have 5 of the necessary 14 so far. This week I started with the Toronto Tenancy issues: by next post I will have an action plan set in place so keep posted on developments! My other community goals are mostly business and lobby oriented, but with some planning I can come up with working ways of change.

Th3 world goals are even more complicated and difficult to reach. Only a few reachable goals have come up so far, but through BookTrollz Publishing Company, I have started a plan to organize efforts to address global issues like bullying, disabilities and sustainability. 11 more ideas needed, got any?

Change cannot be created through sole one-person efforts - not for m3, my circl3 or th3 world - I need to recruit minds, hands and bodies to make almost any of my goals happen. Thankfully most of my buds are green tree-huggers, happy to offer a little help to high places for their friends.

So let me pass this on to you - got any ideas to help mys3lf, my circl3 or th3 world?

puff, puff, peace.