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I would like to direct your attention to a recent blog made by Steve Pavlina at www.stevepavlina.com. It essentially embodies what I find to be the source of change, and what I also find to be the goal — how a society without bars actually runs. I believe that all of us at WorldSave agree with me.

You can find the blog here: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/03/the-war-on-ego/.

I encourage you to read it and not simply pass this notice by. It is really eye-opening if you have never entertained this way of thinking, and if you have it is an impressive reminder.

Lia Cross

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Today’s blog is to tell readers about the website http://www.tearitdown.org/.  The site is from Amnesty International, and its about gaining support to stop Guantanamo Bay.

From their site, “Why Should I Care?”

“Because lasting security and real justice for the victims of terrorism cannot be achieved without real justice and respect for human rights.

Because those illegally detained in US custody at Guantánamo and elsewhere must be released unless they are to be charged with recognized crimes.

Because those held at Guantánamo and elsewhere, including in secret detention centres, are human beings who haven’t seen their homes or families for years and have faced torture and other ill-treatment.

Because indefinite and secret detentions are a blight on human rights and are against international law.

Because each day that illegal detention at Guantánamo and elsewhere continues is a day too long. ”

I agree with TearItDown.org.  We should not have ultimatums.  Just because we think someone has wronged us doesn’t suddenly make it okay for us to violate their human rights.  And yes, they do have rights.  You don’t need to be a citizen of the United States to have rights.  Each human being should be treated equally, and whenever they aren’t it is a step backwards for civilization.  The excuses that “they harmed us first” or “they’re doing it to our POW” aren’t excuses at all.  There is no excuse to behave in such a way against a human being.  There is not excuse for holding someone without trial, for (possibly) torturing them, for keeping them from their families and loved ones if they haven’t been convicted of anything (and possibly never will be).

This goes back to a recent current event seen at http://world-save.com/boards/index.php?topic=14.0.  President George W. Bush vetoed a ban on torture.  Why would the president of a country who’s foundation is strongly rooted in the protection of human rights want to allow torture?  It seems like a move he is making in his own interest, not his country’s.  The United States, and all countries, should not allow the torture of any human being.  I would like to extend that to animals as well, but unfortunately our world takes small steps.  Part of me believes that these two things go hand in hand.  That if one stops producing and consuming tortured food then the urge to torture would be lessened.  I have found that those of us on diets predominated by fruits and vegetables (especially those who omit animal products and processed foods entirely) are healthiest, happiest, and least likely to harm either intentionally or unintentionally.  Of course, a lot more goes into it than that (economic situation, living quarters, spirituality, relationships, possibility for a future, etc.), but I do think that altering the general human diet towards one predominated by fruits and vegetables is a step in the right direction for lessening hatred against our fellow human beings.  It may not make sense to you unless you’ve tried it, so don’t take my word for it.  Try consuming more raw fruits and raw leafy greens.  Just pack up on them.  Try a day or two with just those.  See how you feel… not how you’re focusing on food, but on how clean you feel.  If you keep going, you’ll notice that your mood improves too.  Your head clears from all those toxins.  When your head and heart are clear, they cannot harbor hatred quite as easily.

Of course, TearItDown.org mentions none of this.  Most people don’t believe, understand, or even know it.  But its true.  I’ve known one woman who swears vegetables saved her marriage.  And why?  Because she ate more and became calmer, more clear headed, and saw her husband in a whole new light.  I have the same experience in my relationships.  Cleaner diet = more loving interactions.  Poor diet = bad interactions.  Very simple.

Give it a try… for World Peace.

Lia Cross 

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This may seem like a silly question to you. Clearly, change happens through change. It describes itself. Yet, more specifically how may stump you. Some would think that to initiate change you need to make someone else believe in a different idea, paradigm, whathaveyou. Then, we think “The world will change!” But it isn’t about shared belief. In fact, that’s entirely irrelevant. A world where everyone believes the exact same thing would be rather dull.

If change isn’t about belief, what is it? It is about action. Okay. So you change your answer to: Change is making someone else do something differently. In this case, something that benefits the world. Unfortunately, you would still be wrong. We cannot make anyone else do anything differently. Only an individual controls their own actions. In fact, we are only responsible for ourselves. Okay. So how can we possibly expect change?

I read somewhere once, forgive me that I do not know who said it, that we should be the change we want to see in the world. And that is specifically how change happens. You change, and only you. Your habits change. Your ideas may change, but they don’t have to. Typically, your beliefs will either change, or will at least now match your habits.

It is very typically for people to rally, to believe in something, to want change, and then to do nothing about it. They sort of expect the world to change and they’ll do it when the time is right. But they do not understand that the world will not change if they do not change. The world is made up of many, many people. If they all thought “I’ll wait for the world to change” then guess what, the world never changes. What needs to happen is, each individual thinks “I want to world to change, and I want it to be as I am acting now” and then they act in accordance with that change, change will happen. Why? Because it is happening.

Now, clearly one people changing isn’t a whole lot. Its not going to create a lot of fuss (at least, not usually). So then what? That’s where WorldSave comes in. A place for people who are initiating change by changing themselves. A place where we can interact and think of ways to better ourselves, and ways that we can find out what is wrong with the world and change our lives so we no longer support those problems. Furthermore, you will find that leading by example is the best way to change someone’s mind.

Although change isn’t about changing others, you will still find that they do change when they see something they like, or that makes sense to them. If they see a glowing, happy individual, healthy and satisfied with life, they are going to want to know what you’re doing right that they seem to be missing. Curiosity initiates conversation. Conversation initiates an idea. An idea initiates a belief. A belief initiates action.

Unfortunately, this cycle can get caught up between idea:belief and, more frequently, belief:action. That is where is rests upon each individual to change themselves. Nobody can give anyone else that push to action. Only you can push yourself.

I said before that shared belief isn’t a component of change. It isn’t, but belief is a component. Shared belief is dull, and will create a stagnant world. However, belief around a central idea “making the world a better place”, or any similar idea about change, is useful and is a component of change. This does not mean that each belief must be identical. It just means that each belief needs to lead to an action that initiates that idea and turns it into reality.

So think long and hard about it. What can you change about yourself that turns an idea into reality? That matches a little better with your beliefs? Do you love animals but eat meat? Do you love nature but pollute? Do you want to end human starvation but you consume processed food? You want peace but promote violence? Pick one thing you want to do differently and just do it. Then you will have made change.

Lia Cross

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As I worked in a position, until recently, that put me into contact with a high volume of people, I’ve noticed a thing or two about patience. Most people have it and are gracious, but one person who is impatient and negative seems to make up for every twenty people with patience.

What is patience, when should we have it, and when should we not have it anymore? A discussion of this kind can only be 100% conclusive when applied to a specific situation, and even then not always, but generally, I think guidelines can be laid to help people keep themselves in check.

The first thing we should do to work on patience is to identify the things that make us impatient. For some people, it’s standing in line at a grocery store and watching an elderly woman count out 99 cents (or more) in change, penny by penny. For others, it’s being nagged by a parent, significant other, etc., when they already have things on their mind. I think identifying the things that make us lose it is almost half of the battle.

We are largely controlled by our subconscious. The reason people get into the same arguments over and over is because our bodies make us into creatures of habit. Perhaps your girlfriend makes a huffing sound when she’s angry. You hear that, and your muscles automatically tense, because you know that sound and you know she always does it when you argue. It seems silly to evaluate it rationally now, but that’s what the subconscious does. If you can pinpoint that moment, that thing that gets you annoyed, then it becomes easier to avoid it or fend it off. If you say “Not this argument again,” then you’re one step closer to having a discussion about the situation and perhaps end it, rather than the same old argument.

Another way to avoid a situation where impatience flourishes is to manage your time properly. Nerves tend to set people on edge and make them react intensely and unhappily. People in a grocery line who are stuck waiting often say they have to be someplace in a short time, and thus are angry that they have to wait. Life will never be perfect, and although no one can time their day perfectly either, it seems that so many people expect the world to unfold for them, and get angry at those who can’t control certain aspects of what “went wrong.”

One way to know when to gather up your patience is when you start to feel that anger and look at the person it’s directed at. Ask yourself if that person deserves your wrath or unkind words, if it’s really their fault, and if it is, if it’s constructive or moral to take out your frustrations on them. Think about how the other person’s day is going, what kind of a situation they’re in. I think once you ponder all these things, most of the time you’ll find it’s not worth it to get angry - and maybe the thought process will calm you down as well.

Also good for anger and nerves are breathing exercises. Kind of like that “count to ten” saying, breathing is a great way to relax a person at any time. Sometimes when I feel tense and stressed before I go to sleep and it’s keeping me awake, I do a short breathing exercise to take the tension out of my body and clear my mind. Breathing in through the mouth, take a deep breath in for ten seconds, focusing on collecting breath downward toward the navel. Hold it for a moment, then breathe out for twenty seconds, slowly. Do this as many more times as you want. If ten seconds in and twenty out is too long, just double the exhale from however many seconds of inhale you take.

If everyone took steps to increase their patience, were friendly and understanding in tense situations (without letting themselves be stepped all over, that is), I think the world would be a better place. Even if it wouldn’t solve global warming, poverty, or huge social problems we have now that people may find more important than common courtesy, our day to day lives often include a lot of time out in public with others, and much of the time, our days might very well be more enjoyable if people, and ourselves, were more patient.

- candela.

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I realized that not everyone will understand what is meant by the WorldSave slogan: Find the bars to your cage… and break them.

Breaking a cage is obvious enough, but what about these bars?

The quote comes from paraphrasing the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. In it, he mentions how, if you don’t know where the bars to your cage are, how can you break them? You may want to break them, you’re raring to go, but you just don’t know how because you can’t see them in the first place. An example would be the hippie movement. They wanted to tear down something. Change something. But they didn’t know what they were fighting against. Not specifically. What were the bars holding this society together? How could they break them to bring the meaningless society down?

WorldSave hopes to help you identify the bars to both world and personal cages. We hope to help you figure out whats standing in your way of a better world. Once we know the problems, we can move to change them. When the problems go away, we’ve effectively broken a bar. Eventually, when all the bars are broken, we have demolished the cage, and we should find outselves standing in a bright, open, free world. An example of a broken cage and free world would be the eradication of poverty and/or world hunger. It would be a healthier world with healthier people, who are at least a little less pissed off at each other. It would mean less war and more global cultural understanding and tolerance. It would mean total non-violence. Everything and anything that would make this world a better place is a cage torn down.

As for your personal cages, I hope you can find whatever it is that is holding you back. Tear down that cage that makes you scared to do what’s right. Break the bars so you take responsibility for your own health and don’t settle with your sickness. Don’t just step out of your cage—break it. Totally tear down the walls so that you couldn’t run back into it, couldn’t be captured again, even if you wanted to. Set yourself up for success. Do what you know you need to in order to accomplish your goal not just today, but tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, until you find the cage has decomposed into nothingness.

Tips on how to succeed in your personal goals and break down your cages will follow in subsequent blogs. As for breaking down global cages, that’s what WorldSave is all about.

Lia Cross

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