Our Meeting At This Time Makes Healing Possible

What if the real revolution begins inside your body?

What if you can subtly, immutably, shift what you are drawn to so that you always choose a path of peace and purpose?

For centuries, change was defined by force. Shouting, fighting, resisting. A clash of voices and ideals.

But time and trauma has revealed a deeper truth: A body that is out of balance cannot build a peaceful world. If fear lives in the body, then peace must also be embodied. If a person is dysregulated, exhausted, or unwell, they do not have full choice and autonomy over where they direct their energy, and cannot stand tall in the face of systems of oppression and injustice, because our energy has been wired for survival.

Fight. Flight. Freeze. Shut down.

Not because we’re weak. But because we’ve inherited centuries of domination, scarcity, and silence. Our energetic fields carry histories we did not consent to.

We want to create a new world, full of compassion, justice, and safety. But we are often carrying the weight of the old one.

Let me tell you a story.

For most of my life, I felt a deep sense of injustice and existential pain about all the things that were out of my control. Plastic in the ocean. Disconnection in my family. A childhood without the proper support to express myself freely. Animal suffering. Human suffering. I carried it in my shoulders, my back, my foggy brain, and my actions.

Yet, I did not have the proper support to acknowledge, own, and accept my own complicity in these systems. I would feel sad and guilty, but not move towards inspired action. My brain did not function well, and my body was rigid, chock full of energy that smothered my spirit. I did not know where to start. No one had ever told me, “do what you can, where you are, with what you have.” When someone told me I could take my own bags to the supermarket, I thought, “what’s the point?”

I remember once saying to my friend and mentor, “Damn it! Why do you have to love me for who I am, and not how I look?”

I was half joking, but the gravity of the comment hung in the air. It was an acknowledgment, exposing how much I had placed value on physical appearance in the past.

I went to the gym not to feel strong, but to have an acceptable body. I devoured books and podcasts not to evolve, but to be liked. I collected knowledge I never integrated, because my motivation was not learning, but approval. So much of human culture directs us towards curating ourselves.

Be cool.

Be successful but not intimidating.

Be attractive.

Be friendly, easy going, but not ‘too much’.

Be confident but not arrogant.

Be soft, but don’t show emotion…

the list goes on. Shame culture is rampant, and other peoples’ judgment and opinions can feel like a punch to the stomach. It is no wonder so many people prefer to hide.

Yesterday, I was in a workshop led by my dearest friend on Non-Violent Communication. She made a comment about me in front of the 12 participants. Immediately, I felt a familiar sensation rise: the beginnings of a trigger. Because of the trust I have built with this friend, and the trust I have rebuilt within myself, I realised this was an opportunity: a real-time example of the very work we were exploring. So I paused and said “When you made that comment, I felt angry.” I looked at the NVC booklet (*information attached below) and continued, “My need is time.”

With her immense capacity and presence, she put her hand on my shoulder and said, “You can have some of my time now. Do you want to speak?”

The moment she said it, tears rose. “I just need to cry.” I let out a deep breath and a few tears, and we moved on.

All of this unfolded in less than a minute.

I have no idea what the workshop participants felt or thought. Maybe they were nervous, judgmental, or awkward in the face of such raw vulnerability. But deep down, I knew that my friend and I were modelling a different kind of leadership—one born from love, courage, and emotional truth. One that begins with two people saying “I am here, and you are here, and our meeting at this time makes healing possible.”

This knowing is what allows me to continue marching forward, one step at a time, despite the huge amount of societal and cultural barriers that are shouting “do not evolve! Do not disrupt our systems!” That is the point of taking small actions towards a culture of Life’s values. Energy is undeniably real, and we can shift it by choosing differently than we have been taught.

These driving forces - capitalism, performance culture, emotional repression, transactional ways of relating - saturate society like a physical force. They seep in. They shape us. They are so easily internalised by people who have never been taught to think for themselves.

In the past, I would never have allowed that emotion to surface, and perhaps I never would have understood it, named it, or let it go. I may have sat there for the rest of the workshop, feeling unmet and unsupported, unable to process the opportunity I was being given.

Even in “alternative”, “spiritual”, and “educational” spaces, the same patterns show up: pushing, performing, competing, bypassing.

This is why we need to break the spell. We need to smash through the illusions and constructs. We need ways to remember deeply who we are beneath conditioning, why we are here, and how we can be more in-step with the uninterrupted flow of Life, rather than the manufactured pressure of the world.

This is where the real impact begins. No matter where you are, what you have, or how broken you might feel, you can choose to let go. It is controversial, but even someone living under deep oppression can access inner freedom and overcome fear. Strength is built one choice at a time.

This is decentralised change. When we help someone release fear, shame, or trauma… we are removing barriers to leadership. We are restoring their natural state: truth, power, love. We are creating world-builders.

This is not self-care. This is world care.

A healed heart cannot participate in oppression. A peaceful human becomes impossible to control. Someone who knows their worth and their gifts will never bend in their willingness to evolve.

Balanced ecosystems of Life never push, expect, fight, judge, or hide. You would never compare a tree to another. Calling a river “ugly” or “wrong” would feel absurd. Obliging a possum to come to dinner would surely leave your hopes dashed. So why do we do this to our fellow humans? Why do we do it to ourselves?

This is how we build a world that feels safe to be alive in. We need to un-shape these ideas that learning comes from society, and realise that Life is always the teacher.

You have been programmed by systems that don’t love you. Love yourself as a radical act in service of the new world. Make your own mind, and your own life a safe space for yourself to relax and be yourself without judgment. When you are safe, the spaces you exist in become safer. A safer world opens more truth.

Truth is peace. And peace is power. And power is not domination or control, but something far more alive:

• A big capacity for love (giving and receiving)

• Needing less and less from others (because you are anchored in yourself)

• Full choice (acting from truth, not fear)

• Deep sense of oneself (unshakeable by external noise or expectation)

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This is the kind of power that cannot be weaponised. The kind of power that creates safety, clarity, and evolution. The kind of power that builds the world we’re longing for. Start now. Breathe. Let go of stress. Be curious, and join the revolution.

This is the universal needs list adapted by Marshall Rosenberg, central to Non-Violent Communication