Internal Revolution

Vive la révolution…the internal revolution

Have you ever had a random urge to spring clean in the middle of the fall? Or maybe a sudden need or feeling to rebrand? Yeah, me too. Everyone has a distinctive personality, style, or brand that makes them who they are, and we usually develop these things over time. Our subconscious is what influences our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors while allowing us to adapt and shape our overall sense of being. Throughout our lifetime though we go through changes, growing pains, and different seasons. These different periods in our life can cause us to learn to adapt to our environments-but how? These seasons and experiences often help to shape and mold us into the people we are today through shared norms, values, and behaviors. We make choices throughout all of these seasons that eventually lead to pivots. A pivot is a point that is used to turn on; in our lives pivots can resemble the adaptability it requires to thrive in ever-changing environments and individual experiences. Pivots can be composed of different factors: the most common are external ones, such as economic or social factors,  but the most powerful are internal factors, such as emotional intelligence and social nature which reflects our interactions with friends and family, our duties that impact our lives. 

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Sometimes we may not fully notice that a pivot is being produced in our lives, but it always comes in some shape or form like the rising of the sun. Some of us actively seek these pivots, or internal revolutions as I like to call it, whereas sometimes it comes naturally. There have been seasons that we thought we may not have made it through, or traits we thought were stuck to us like glue. Somehow though we find ways to get through or deal with these changes because survival is part of our nature. However, as a counter to survival, conflict can arise in moments or shifts in our behaviors, habits, and patterns. There are small egos within us that want us to remain stagnant, and these small egos are the mightiest foe that we come up against when transitioning or pivoting to the next chapter in our books of life. Pride is a major hindrance that can keep us in the same positions that we try to break away from. How do we go about letting go of these small egos? It’s easier than you may think. Essentially how well you interact and program your inner dialogue frames the way you think.

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How to begin you internal revolution

Buddha says, “What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.” It's not so simple though. According to the National Foundation of Science, “the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80% were negative” (Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic). This is alarming but very true because thinking negatively is much easier to do. When I cook for others  it is very easy to get nervous because everyone has different taste buds. I know that I like spicy food but not everyone does, so when I make spicy food for myself and others I get a rush of negative thoughts because I want my guests to enjoy the food I present them. I believe that negative thinking is like second nature because we always want to be prepared for the worst outcome. The best way to overcome these feelings is to pause, to live in the moment, and be present. By living in the moment we are able to observe all that is going on around us. This method allows us to show more gratitude for what we are able to experience, no matter how small or insignificant we may think it is.  

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As a generation, Gen Z spends so much time caring what others think, but we are not the only ones. According to an article done by METRO, the average person stops caring about what others think of them at the age of 46, which is a pretty long time spent caring about other people’s opinions. Imagine if a fraction of that time was spent on ourselves instead; we would yield so many amazing results. These obsessions over other people’s opinions come from recurrent thoughts or impulses that cause emotions such as anxiety and fear. Overcoming these thoughts and impulses are the key to starting your internal revolution. 

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The subconscious is where our internal revolution truly begins, so first we must understand how to tap into our subconscious. The first step to gauging your subconscious is through engaging with your inner dialogue. Do you ever have a conversation in your head about what juice you want to have when at the supermarket? The store has mango and passion fruit juice on show along with freshly pressed apple juice and mixed berries juice to choose from. Most of us start a conversation within our minds to make a decision. These dialogues could go like, “mixed berries might be too sweet for me,” “I really like apple juice though,” “but mango is always so smooth.” Your inner dialogue helps you to weigh up alternatives that will result in a made decision. Your inner dialogue also fuels the way that we think about ourselves.

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Warren Buffet once said “The most important investment you can make is in yourself” (goodreads). Taking the time to invest in what brings you joy can truly transform your life dramatically. Investing within yourself is another important step in the process of your internal revolution. When we invest in ourselves we put in the effort, energy, and resources to better our future selves. Through us making the choice to invest in ourselves it serves as a reminder of how much of an important piece we are in the evolution of our own lives. Self investment can look like developing our talents, increasing our knowledge, improving our personal brand, and honing our emotions. What does this look like? Firstly, developing talents involves finding and focusing on a skill that you are really good at or that you enjoy. Practicing this skill allows it to become second nature. By increasing our level of mastery in the said skill we can increase our confidence within ourselves to produce, so automatically we walk and talk poised and self-assured. 

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Secondly, increasing our knowledge can come in many different forms such as reading a book, listening to a podcast, or watching a YouTube video. Knowledge is very important for our internal revolutions because it allows us to gain understanding which then leads to wisdom when we can apply that knowledge. Wisdom in turn helps us to make better decisions leading again to better outcomes for our future selves. Expanding our knowledge has never been any easier than it is today. With the internet at our fingertips we can stuff the neurons in our brains with a lot of useful information. Learning something new or exciting to you also engages your brain in a very healthy way by stimulating it with new thoughts and information. All of these self investment prompts continuously help us to evolve every day, getting us closer to who we want to become. 

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Thirdly, improving our own personal brand helps us to track our internal revolution. This step can take a little longer than the others, but this is okay. Your personal brand should develop as you develop, grow as you grow, and expand as you broaden your horizon. Your personal brand is a little more delicate, as it is you, and your very essence. It is a direct reflection of who you are and what you stand for. That is why it takes longer than the other steps because we peel back another layer of ourselves everyday. The more we progress through our internal revolution, the closer we get to our personal brand. That initial pivot is what sets us off to finding and introducing our personal brand. Once you understand who you are you can present your personal brand through style, personality, and character.  

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Lastly, honing in our emotions can truly give us the control that we need in order to fully pivot. Our emotions and feelings can drive us to make decisions that we can later regret, or that we were not prepared for. This step is another very important one because it can give us direct access to clarity and logical reasoning. It takes quite a lot of personal work and commitment, but it is definitely worth it. In order to prevent the delay of our internal revolutions it is best to work on honing our emotions as best as we can, so that we can prepare ourselves for any unexpected obstacles. A few ways that one can learn to control their emotions include; practicing mindfulness in order to experience your feelings as well as letting them pass, becoming more vulnerable and learning to be okay with that so that you can fully be yourself, identifying and reducing triggers that can lead to emotional outbursts, and introducing positive self talk into your life to help reprogram your inner dialogue. These are just a few of the things that can help us to manage our emotions. The sooner we implement these things the sooner we can hone our emotions, and control the decisions we make. Allowing us to pivot in a prepared and sustainable way.

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Aftercare

All of this will not happen overnight. I repeat: all of these steps and changes will not happen overnight, and that is okay. The greatest thing we can do sometimes is not give up. As long as we keep faith and do the work, our internal revolution will come right on time, when it is meant to. Trust, grace, and patience are much needed during this period of our lives. We will not overcome every obstacle when we first encounter them, or change every bad habit in an instant. One thing is for certain though, these trials and eras in our lives will teach us patience, and if we stick it out, we can change our lives for the better. So I implore you to stick it out to reap the fruits of your harvest.