Allow the goodness inside you to manifest
A thought on what to do with a life
Allow the goodness inside you to manifest in the world by doing the work.
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We spend too much time reacting to the world and too little time manifesting our inner self into the world. So much of who we are remains unexpressed. Our very existence on this planet, in this biological body, remains neglected, unacknowledged. We take mental refuge in worlds to come, futures to come, or in life beyond death—thinking this life here is transitory. Yet, we strive for optimization, efficiency, and productivity, to increase an illusory value, be it capital or progress. Increasingly, even our thoughts, experiences, feelings, and creative energy are harvested for profit by platforms that commodify human existence itself.
Caught in the whirlwind of progress, we forget that we are living beings.
Every single day is a manifestation of being alive on a planet that nurtures us together with countless other beings—the web of life powering existence itself. Every day, our creative energy waits to be engaged, to embrace our embodied existence, to express who we are into the world. It starts with the small things: our surroundings, our relationships, how we dress our bodies, the way we carry ourselves, what we cook, how we set up the table. Then it extends to the outside world: how we exist on this planet, how we consume, how we share this earth with other living beings, how we leave this place behind once we’ve passed through. All this is our imprint on this world.
From the small to the big things, it was never about changing the world single handedly. It was about changing our world by manifesting the goodness inside, by doing the work.
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This essay is part of my ongoing project Cognitive Ecology, a year-long exploration of society, technology, nature, and the future of life on Earth through aphorisms, reflections, and occasional long-form essays.
Thank you for reading,
—Claudia Befu
beautiful, hopeful, vibrant words. ❤️