By Lissa Rankin MD

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

You can’t change something by making it wrong. You can only effect change if you can wake up the sleeping people, and in order for them to hear you, you must have compassion for how they got where they are. Think of all the truly effective change agents. They didn’t come out with hate, guns blaring and voices screaming. They came out with love and spoke to the hearts of those who knew there was another way.

That’s my intention with medicine. Many people are angry at medicine because our system is so broken. I used to be too. But the establishment can’t hear you if you’re beating them up. They’ll defend against you, even if you speak truth.

The only way to get them to hear you is to love the very people that are out of alignment with a universal truth. Then, feeling loved and safe, they have the opportunity to release their defenses and examine their own beliefs and actions and choose whether they’ll come with you or dismiss what you’re teaching.

If they don’t choose to come with you, it doesn’t mean they’re wrong. We live in a very dualistic world, in which you’re either right or wrong, awake or asleep, north or south, our side or their side, and we place judgments on all those positions. But we need to release the judgments. We all have our own paths. If you’re trying to change people who aren’t ready to change, release them without anger. It just means their souls are not yet ready for what you are inviting them to do. No need to be angry. Bless them and carry on.

How To Let Go Of The Anger

If it feels impossible to stop being righteously angry at those you seek to change, this is my prayer for each of you:

May you find the angry part of you, the part that feels violated and betrayed, the part that should have been nurtured, but instead was harmed, the part that is making others wrong, the part that is frustrated because you know the truth and nobody else is listening to you, the part that just can’t stand the discomfort of being with the truth when others don’t yet have it . Offer that part of you comfort, loving care, and compassion. Promise to take care of that part of you. Make a commitment to always listen to this angry part. Promise to never sell out that part of you. Never. Ever. Reassure the angry part. Mother the angry part. Soothe the angry part.

The angry part thinks it won’t get heard unless it screams, defends, and makes everyone else wrong. It doesn’t realize it’s actually sabotaging your efforts to effect change, because you can’t change something when you make it wrong. The angry part doesn’t trust that it will be heard if it shows up in love.

But I promise, there’s a more effective way to teach.