“Families belong together”, is the mantra of these days, and I have many mixed feelings. Yesterday I was at the protest to fight for the children separated from their parents; a painful situation that makes me sad, angry and frustrated but also hopeful when I see how many of us fight for social justice in different ways. However, tomorrow I am traveling back to Greece to visit my family after two years, and that is exciting.
I am lucky enough to be privileged, but a human right should never be reduced to a privilege. Human rights are to be respected for all. And I know that we can all give our part and use wisely our privilege to creating the world that we believe in. In my case, through my experience working directly within communities I have come to realize that social change is possible only when it goes hand in hand with personal change. For that, I consider soul searching and personal transformation as essential social actions, especially for us who have the privilege of time and financial resources to do so. There are many ways to invest our energy and resources… When we invest it to discover and accept with compassion all of our different parts, the ones we like, and the ones that feel pretty uncomfortable and we reject, then we can also open up ourselves to appreciate and accept others as who they are. When we invest it to bring, with love, light into our darkness, the pain that we are running away from, then we heal our hearts so that our love, creativity and true gifts may flow powerfully in our actions to heal also the world around us. When we invest it to become lovingly responsible for the wounds of our inner child, and to recognize harmful projections, then we challenge ourselves to really BE the world we want to live in. After all, we are always being in relationship, and who we are affects all our relationships, with others and nature, and is reflected on what we are doing.
Personally, I have invested a lot of time, energy and resources throughout my life in these actions, and still do, because I constantly see the benefits in my life and how I am able to give my part for social justice to happen. This is why I started Authentic Movement SF, to facilitate groups, retreats and individual sessions in Authentic Movement as an introspective and healing-through-movement practice. My mission is to provide a respectful space where we can invest wisely together, our time, energy and resources, for personal and social transformation. Hope this is a message that inspires you to think how you invest your energy and time to support social change.
Because we should all care. And may I see you in one of my activities or out there on the streets, cause after all, families do belong together!