All things start with the self. Your own internal world dictates how you operate in the world, and all systemic and societal issues are an aggregation of how the majority of people think about themselves.

The opposite of love is fear, not hate. Hate is a symptom, not the root cause. This leads me to believe that changing the world for the better means each person has a responsibility to heal themselves into love.

In most cases fear is really the aversion to pain. The possibility of pain triggers a fear response, and fear puts people into a state of self-preservation.

Self-preservation places oneself at the center of all decisions and allows one to drop integrity and morals in the name of defense. To preserve oneself at all costs. The lengths people will go to avoid pain is astounding. When an identity is formed around fear it cripples the soul, people become weak over time, especially in their ability to honestly look at themselves. The ego turns vile in order to protect its wounds from being seen or felt. This process is proportionate to the level of pain and fear one carries.

The pain keeps piling up like debt and the fear of facing it increases. I believe this is the crux of wickedness in our society. Fear. In a state of fear, scared people are dangerous and untrustworthy.

However, we are all dynamic in nature. We can reverse this process. Face your fears. Examine your life. Where there is fear, anger, or contempt, there is pain. All emotions are fleeting by design. To accept and feel that pain is to release what was never meant to be carried, for pain is the great shaper. Like a sculptor carving away material to reveal what was hidden, pain reveals the impermanence of all things and grounds us in the beauty of a finite life. It was meant to be felt, then washed away like all other emotions.

When you face your fears, when you feel your pain, you will find that underneath it was love and true strength. A return to your true self. A place where connection opens again and blessings flow to your life and spirit. This is what it means to be courageous.