Can Inner Work Really Change the World?
Who do we have to become to create a better, more beautiful, and just world for everyone?
I’ve heard countless times, and in various ways, that to transform the world, we must first transform ourselves.
But I see inner and outer transformation as happening simultaneously. The world cannot wait for us to achieve perfection before we seek to make it better. As the world heals, we will find ourselves healing alongside it. And as we heal and we engage with the world, we’ll see the world heal alongside us.
In my last post, I explored the four root causes of harm, what I call the powers—fear, isolation, ignorance, and victimization—and how the powers can convince us to hurt others, hurt ourselves, and stand by while others are hurt. Where these things exist in a society, violence, and control will almost inevitably follow.
I also shared how to neutralize the powers with their opposites. When we pursue initiatives and projects that promote safety, connection, truth, and justice, we’re able to address harm at its root en masse, and we’re able to solve some of humanity’s toughest problems. If you haven’t read my last post, I encourage you to do so.
In this post, I’ll share how to address those same powers within ourselves. If the “outer work” of promoting the “opposites” is the antidote to the poison in the world, the “inner work” I’ll share in this post is what builds our immunity to it.
The Resilience Factor
Just as every power has an opposite, every power also has what I call a “resilience factor.” But unlike the opposites, which can be reduced to a single word, the resilience factors take a bit more time and effort to explain. The purpose of building resilience to the powers is twofold.
For the sake of others: ensuring we don’t perpetuate the very problems we’re hoping to solve and that we’re not imprinting our own wounds onto the world. Resilience helps equip us to build a better future.
For the sake of ourselves: to build within ourselves the ability to, regardless of circumstances, be grounded in our agency and free from the manipulation and control of those who benefit from harm and oppression.
When we build resilience to the powers in ourselves and our communities, we are able to withstand great anxiety or pain while still maintaining our commitment to a better future. We are able to respond rather than react and stand firm in our values.
When we’re not resilient, we’re vulnerable to being convinced to sacrifice our humanity for the sake of what seems necessary for self-preservation or simply the avoidance of discomfort. Those who lack resilience are quiet in the face of atrocities because they don’t want to lose their jobs. Those who lack resilience will commit to joint work, justice, and true peacebuilding but then join an oppressive military force after their “people” or “nation” is attacked.
Cultivating resilience helps us to keep, for lack of a better phrase, “our money where our mouth is.”
This is the second of three establishing posts on the framework that guides everything I create and post—I’m starting off big picture, to lay the foundation, but I promise to get more practical later on. Once we can understand how those who benefit from harm and oppression use specific tools to manipulate us, to sow hatred, distrust, and violence at our own and others’ expense, along with how to resist them, I believe we can most clearly create a path forward together.
Resilience underscores each individual’s ability to address the powers regardless of status, influence, or resources. Everyone who frees themselves from the powers weakens those who use harm to accumulate wealth and power. Every community that does the same and refuses to play their game is one less community that can be controlled and manipulated.
Okay, let’s get into it. Here’s a very brief overview of what resilience how each po
Resilience to Fear
The “resilience factor” for fear was the most obvious to me from the get-go, and you’ve probably already guessed what it is: courage.
Courage allows us to be in the presence of fear without being overcome by it. As Nelson Mandela famously said, “Courage is not about the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” Courage comes from a combination of a belief that inaction is much more dangerous than action, a belief that a better future is possible, and a willingness to face discomfort, pain, or worse for our most deeply held values.
A society with a low tolerance for discomfort is a society where courage is likely scarce.
When we lack courage, we cave to intimidation. We submit, and it erodes our sense of self, our beliefs, our core identities. Those who have failed to speak up against today’s horrors for fear of harming their professional reputations are certainly hurting not only others with their silence but also themselves. Like with all the powers, the more you submit to it, the more you lose yourself.
Resilience to Victimization
Victimization, in the way I define it, is harm without resolve.
When we’re hurt by someone, and we don’t have immediate access to satisfactory justice, resilience to victimization enables us to resist the perpetrator’s narrative and not be defined by their actions. Being resilient to this power is not about ignoring the ways we’ve been harmed or forsaking the pursuit of justice in response to those harms. It’s about making the decision to move forward regardless of the perpetrator's standing, response, or fate.
Victimization binds us to those who’ve hurt us, and launches us into a power struggle—with ourselves and others. Resilience frees us from this power struggle so we can avoid slipping into feelings of powerlessness or attempting to regain our power by subjecting someone else. Instead, we’ll rediscover our inherent power and agency from within ourselves and within our communities. Being free from victimization doesn’t mean the wound is healed, but it does mean that the wound is allowed to close and the healing process can begin.
Resilience to Ignorance
Being resilient to ignorance involves establishing certain safeguards against misinformation and manipulation. Though we may not have all the answers or the certainty of truth, we can develop the necessary tools to sift through what’s available and discern what to act on, what to question, and what to leave be.
In the age of digital and democratized journalism and social media, this type of resilience has become all the more important.
Those who are resilient question just about everything, especially those things that instill distrust or hatred in society and feed into the narratives of those seeking domination. They also cultivate what I call the three pillars of an active mind:
Curiosity launches us into the exploration of what is, creating a deep understanding of the world and the knowledge base by which we can assess everything else.
Criticism advises us to take things apart and understand what does and doesn’t work. It cultivates a watchful eye, disuades us from taking things at face value, and boosts our discernment.
Creativity is the ability to craft and imagine something entirely new. It guards us against the common but insidious lie that “this is the only way things can be.”
Resilience to Isolation
Everyone will feel isolated at times, but those who are resilient will have the tools and beliefs necessary to work toward reconnection. By connection, I mean the feeling and recognition that you are a part of something greater than yourself: this can include belonging to a community, a broader purpose, a higher power.
To build healthy communities, we need to foster environments where connection is abundant and isolation is scarce. For those of us living in much of the modern Western world, with its hyper individualistic culture this particular power can run rampant, and we must do the extra work towards liberating ourselves and others from this power internally.
There are many factors that contribute to our resilience to isolation, but it starts with the foundational recognition and conviction that belonging is not earned; it just is. You are here, so you belong here. People who effectively cultivate connection are also often vulnerable, communicative, and generous. They understand how to foster a deep understanding of one another. They are willing to work on themselves. They seek connection not out of a desire to prove their worthiness, but simply to play their part in their membership to humanity.
This type of resilience is perhaps the most complex and challenging to foster, but it also might be the most important, as connection supports our ability to face just about anything.
True Liberation
Over the years, I have had the honor of meeting many individuals and communities charting the course toward collective liberation, who have demonstrated a tried-and-tested kind of resilience and determination that I long to cultivate within myself.
I learned that this strength comes from a consistent care for our community, the exercising of compassion, the awareness of our thoughts, and the hundreds of small decisions we make every day to stay true to ourselves, our convictions, and the world we hope to build.
I also learned that collective liberation includes both freeing ourselves and others from the control of external oppressive systems while also freeing ourselves and others from the control of the internal narratives and mechanisms of oppression. It's about dismantling not only the structures of domination but also the ingrained beliefs and tools that perpetuate them.
And I learned that inner work and outer work are not only equally important but also unalterably entwined.
Yes