How to Heal the World in Fifteen Minutes

The world is filled with organizations, religions, think tanks, medical experts, and a host of people trying to figure out how to heal our individual lives; our families, our communities, and our world.

We have medications, programs, spiritual leaders, therapists, philosophies, rituals, ceremonies, and doctrine all focusing on ways to make our world a better place.

I applaud them all. Anything any one can do to improve our situation is honored and respected.

However, our world of 6.5 billion people is complex. We don't all have access to clean drinking water, let alone funds to attend the latest self help conference. While there are thousands of fabulous books that provide help and insight, many of our human family are more concerned with putting food in the mouths of their children than they are finding money to purchase a book.

The religions of the world, while many provide peace and comfort to members, often simultaneously create conflict, division, and even violence toward each other.

The latest therapies or medical care may be helpful for some, but again they are expensive, often experimental, and the much of the world is left without care of any sort.

We can't all read the great philosophers, attend the best universities, or even understand the complexities of some religions.

What are we to do?

Is there a way to heal our lives? Our world? Is there something every single person on the planet could do that didn't cost any money, that didn't require traveling, great amounts of time, a large investment of energy? Something the old and young, male and female, rich and poor, healthy and sick can do? Something that wasn't limited by one's color of skin, cultural heritage, religious orientation or philosophical belief?

Is there something that is largely missing in our lives that may give us a new approach?

I came up with one answer, (although I am sure there are others)...

Fifteen minutes each day of silent contemplation and intention.

That is it.

Whether one is inclined toward prayer, meditation, communing with nature, or sitting in silence and stillness, I believe fifteen minutes a day holding an intention to live more consciously and graciously would change the world.

It requires fifteen minutes. That is it. Fifteen minutes a day to heal our world.

I know it sounds too simple, too ordinary, too boring. It isn't a miracle cure or a divine revelation, or a fabulous invention or discovery. Just a simple way to change our lives and the world.

Now, I'm not suggesting each and every problem will evaporate over night if we all start meditating or praying. (Although it could). What I do believe however is that the problems of our world are directly correlated with lack of care, attention, and conscious living.

The more I contemplated this idea over the last several weeks the more I am convinced that there is not a single problem we face that won't be eliminated, or at least vastly diminished if we live more consciously and with greater care.

Spending fifteen minutes each morning with the intention to live more carefully and conscientiously gives changes our minds, our hearts, our actions. Suddenly we see others differently, we notice how are actions effect others, we find ourselves observing the world in a different light.

In this world of instant everything, from pudding to communication, it seems we have nearly forgotten what it means to live. We are so busy with running, texting, calling, emailing, and catching up that we may have lost sight of the meaning of life.

We eat without even noticing (or knowing) what we are putting in our mouths, our conversations become superficial, our relationships unimportant, our creatively non-existence. Our lives become robotic like as we miss the meaning and purpose of existence. And our unconscious living is reflected in the problems of our world.

My heart tells me that the more we live with awareness, the more our world, and our individual lives will heal.

Try fifteens a day of silent contemplation with the intention to live more consciously... you never know how it might change your life... and the world.