Change Happens Two Ways
The Path of Transformation
by Pennie Rumsey
As a student of Teaching Self-Government for more than a year, and a student of many other classes and books, I have noticed a pattern of change.
From my own path of becoming and growing, I have seen and heard the same from many other sources, that change comes about one of two ways: either through grit or through grace.
Nicholeen teaches these two ways as
1- Assertive deliberate action and
2- Changing the heart
Most learning systems I have been involved with have approached change from either one side or the other. I find Teaching Self-Government so valuable to me because it approaches change from both ways. Changing through the heart is change from the outside in. Assertive deliberate action is like change from the outside in, which caninfluence the heart to change from the inside out.
The Anatomy of Change
Change: From theInside-Out
You have likely experienced a change of heart at some time in your life. This is what I mean bychange from the inside out. It starts with a desire which then generates a thought or a feeling, then it becomes an action, and finally it brings about a result. Over time, all these small desires, thoughts, feelings, actions, and results eventually create our reality. The picture looks like this:
Is this true? You tell me
I once heard a story of a mother who was raising two boys. As the boys grew, they often looked at the picture on the wall in their bedroom of the blustery sea. The day finally came for the boys to become men. One by one the boys decided to become Seamen and to sail the ocean. For many troubled, worrisome years the Mother couldn’t figure out why her boys had gone off to sea where it was so dangerous. It wasn’t until her boys came back home for a visit that she finally asked them, “Why is it that you decided to become Seamen?” The boys couldn’t quite explain it at first. It was just a desire they had. As they talked one of them said, “I remember when I was a little boy, I used to look at that picture of the sea on the wall and just dream about being at sea.” Then it dawned on the mother that the picture had planted that desire in their hearts.
Have you ever had a desire planted in you by words or a picture? Of course you have. That's what advertising is all about.
So how does this help us?
If we are working to bring about change in our lives,
- It helps to know ahead of time the path we will be walking
- Seeing the progress helps us to feel motiviation that what we are doing is working
- We can know that we are going the right way when we recognize landmarks
- By knowing how it works we can navigate better for the change we want to have happen
What if we could choose what we desire?
The real questions is, what do we DO with this knowledge? Have you ever been stuck wanting something you didn't want to want? Maybe an unhealthy relationship, or old junk in your house? What if you could weild or choose what you desire? Am I saying that we can actuallyshiftour focus or changeour desire? Yes.
Let us remember that desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions.
So in this case then, we could imagine the same circle as above to be like this:
But What Make Us Desire What We Desire?
This is where your agency comes in. Are you something to be acted upon? Or are you an agent who chooses to act upon another thing? If you choose to be something to be acted upon, the you will allow your focus to drift from thing to think of what ever happens to come into your view. If you are an agent to act upon other things (to exercise your agency) then you will want to be very selective with what you allow to go into you.
The thoughts and ideas that go into you through your eyes, ears, and your body are what I call "Mental Media". All these sources feed your brain words and images at an alarming rate. The brain is an amazing thing that will return what it is fed. If you feed your brain the things you want to want, you will eventually get to where you want to go.