Let’s say humankind was challenged to write a list of things going wrong with the world. If we each did the minimal and wrote one — just one hard or chaotic or painful part of being a human, we’d have millions, maybe billions of descriptors. There is so much happening and it is so easy to get caught up, spun around, and overwhelmed by, on a daily basis. From the smallest of lenses like spilling coffee on our new work outfit, to the medium lens of witnessing a dying relative, to the large lens of experiencing the fear of a war zone, there is a whole lot to stress about, panic and freak out as a human.

There is a collective craving for a sorrowful wail of rage.

But I’m here to say there might be a way to not just throw up our arms and give up.

Within each of us, we are our own little Earth; our own little continent, our own free country, our unique society, our special neighborhood, our loving little home, our tiny perfect family, our own precious perfect partner.

We must be the change we crave: we must breathe, we must hug, we must embrace, cradle, and rock our inner selves. We must aim for the peace and unity we want in the big lens, between countries, governments and cultures. We must hold each other and ourselves tight and speak with kindness, within, as we wish out in the world.

Take a moment and feel your body, sitting or laying there right now. Feel the air entering and exiting your body: your inner family, your inner society, your inner Earth. Breathe in and breathe out, and notice the strength and the life that is happening within you right this moment. Know that your body is alive, blood is flowing, heart is beating, cells are regenerating, neural pathways are connecting. Breathe and feel the stillness, the strength, and calmness that your body can experience with this breath. Despite the chaos, the pain, the wars in the world, there is peace and calmness in your body for a moment. Imagine breathing out that peace and calmness onto the pain of the world. Do it again. And again. And again. Calm within. Calm to the world. Peace within, peace to the world. Over and over again.

We are all tiny little cells in this giant human organism. We must each breathe and find the calm within, so that we can be better at sending it out, seeing it out, creating it out also. We are all responsible to find the peace within the society in us so that we can act for peace in the society around us.

Breathe. The peace is within. Life is within. Over and over again. Come home within.