Episode 002: Society

Transcript from Stirred By Words Episode 002: Society

Chrissy Holm (00:05): Do you love words? Are you passionate about diving into meaningful conversations?

Chrissy Holm (00:16):

Hi, welcome to Stirred By Words, a podcast that focuses on words and questions that impact our daily lives. I'm your host, Chrissy Holm, health educator, writer, curious creature, and now podcaster.

Chrissy Holm (00:27):

Before we get started with today's topic, we'll begin with a health tip. Today we're focusing on journaling. Journaling can help you clear your head, make important connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and it can reduce the effects of mental illness. Author Natalie Goldberg said, "Whether you're keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it is the same thing. What's important is that you're having a relationship with your mind."

Chrissy Holm (01:08):

Here are a few prompts that you can use to get started.

Chrissy Holm (01:11):

Number one, what three things would you share with your teenage self?

Chrissy Holm (01:16):

Number two, what three questions would you want to ask an older version of yourself?

Chrissy Holm (01:23):

And number three, which emotions do you find the hardest to accept guilt, anger, disappointment, et cetera, and how do you handle those emotions?

Chrissy Holm (01:32):

Feel free to pause and journal now or come back to this at a later time.

Chrissy Holm (01:45):

Now it's time for today's word, society. Dictionary.com has a lot of definitions, but we're going to focus on one for today. Society is a highly structured system of human organization for large scale community living that normally furnishes protection, continuity, security, and a national identity for its members. For example, American society.

Chrissy Holm (02:09):

One of the questions that I was pondering when creating this episode was how can we make a change in society? It's such a large concept and it seems impossible to make a change that's really ingrained in who we are and how we live. I know that during my time being a health coach, I've worked with so many clients that have struggled to make changes. And I often ponder, how do we even make a change that's bigger than us when we struggle making changes within ourself? And my answer to that is we can't.

Chrissy Holm (02:44):

But what we can do is focus on our inner circle and hope for a ripple effect. In the first episode, we heard the word community. And if I think about making a ripple effect in at least in one part of my community, that means I can make a ripple effect in other communities. Making change in society, or even in your life, starts with you.

Chrissy Holm (03:10):

This is how a couple of our listeners answered this question. How can we make a change in society? We'll start with Evita, who's a doula, childbirth educator, transformation companion, and neuroscientist.

Evita (03:25):

"To change the world we start with ourselves. Our own healing sets the tone for every relationship we nurture and every interaction we have. To change the world we embody change, growth, flexibility, and the will to always review our opinions in the light of new more reliable information. To change the world, we accompany our kids as their guides. We have realized that we don't own them, that they have their unique personality and gifts, which when expressed led to joy and fulfillment. We don't exert power over them. We don't silence them and we don't impose them to fit in and conform at a personal cost. To change the world we guard our dream against naysayers and fear. We advance with a daring spirit and we never stop. One small step each day has the power to reshape the world. And when all those are done in community, the ripple effect is strong and powerful.

Chrissy Holm (04:31):

Next we'll hear from Laurie Easter, memoir essay writer and author of All The Leavings.

Laurie Easter (04:38):

The question of how do we make changes to society is a complicated one to answer because there are so many types of changes that could benefit society, environmental, economic, issues regarding race, gender, and class. And depending on each person's perspective from their lived experience, what's top priority is going to differ.

Laurie Easter (05:05):

But there is one thing I think if we humans learned and practiced regularly, it would have a positive influence on all the problems every human faces, and that's compassion and empathy. If we learned how to empathize with others, not just those in human form, but other species and the very earth we live on, and if we could practice compassion, really live it and apply it to every situation that confronts us, a lot less harm would be done and there would be a lot less suffering. The need to conquer and control would be minimized. We'd be more likely to accept and embrace those who are different from us. It sounds cliche, but I believe this world would be a better place and we'd be a lot more likely to achieve changes that would benefit society in a more holistic manner rather than for the good of those who are in positions of power.

Chrissy Holm (06:23):

Today's book recommendation is Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. In this book, Wilkerson links the caste systems of America, India, Nazi Germany, and explores the eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, beyond race, class, and other factors. She uses riveting stories about people and shows the way that insidious undertow of caste is experience every day. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions toward hope in our common humanity.

Chrissy Holm (07:01):

Before we wrap up the show, I encourage you to ask yourself a few questions. What does society mean to me? What change do I want to see in society? How can I make that ripple effect in my community?

Chrissy Holm (07:20):

Drop me a message with your thoughts on Instagram at chrissy.holm or if you want to join our Slack community, email me at contact@chrissyholm.com. That's C-O-N-T-A-C-T@C-H-R-I-S-S-Y-H-O-L-M.C-O-M.

Chrissy Holm (07:44):

Thanks for listening to episode two of Stirred By Words. This has been your host, Chrissy Holm. Until next time, keep learning new words, keep journaling, always ask questions, and stay curious, my friends.