What can we do?????
If you feel uncertain about politics, violence, economics, the environment, or any other current issues, global and personal, you may also feel a tad helpless about “things.” Perhaps as a reader or follower of Spirit Moxie, you’ve forgotten that there really are little things we can do to change the world. Or maybe you’ve never really thought that little things might work to affect big issues.
But little things do make a difference. First consider energy. Yup. Consider how you’re feeling right now. Energy spreads. Think of anger and how it can morph into a riot. Well, it works the same way with peace and calm. Think of a meditative space such as a cathedral or even those quiet spaces in airports. You walk in and can feel your whole body relax because of the energy of others who are there or have been there. At a recent Corner of Calm, a half hour virtual event where we simply share calm, I talked about this. You can hear this reflection on YouTube. Perhaps monitoring or changing your emotions doesn’t come easily, but meditation, exercise, and multiple basic exercises can help. What energies do you want in your world? List them.
Then go back to those little things we talk about in Spirit Moxie. If you have a copy of Moxie Moves: 10 easy ways to make a powerful difference, go look at that list. It really is a start! Below I reiterate the 10 easy ways—but in an order different from that in the book. (The number after a Move shows its order in the book. If there is a highlighted link, it goes to a Conversation post on the same topic.)
Smiling (1.) at people and things is a way to positively change energy as we go about our day. Being grateful (2.) is another way to make it easier to have positive emotions.
“You can’t change the world unless you are willing to engage with yourself as well as whatever is around you.”* Remember this engagement is all catching and a stronger you gives you more power. So, love your body (7.), whatever it looks like or feels like. We are bodies and yours is worth love and care. With this, remember the importance of sleep (3.) which actually affects those around you as well as yourself. There are other Spirit Moxie Conversations not in the book that relate, such as brushing your teeth and washing your hands, which we are constantly reminded are things that affect more than ourselves. There are two other chapters in the book that are more cerebral. Learn (5.) and play (10.). These two activities keep our minds active and curious, informing both our being and our doing.
Then there are the concrete actions that make a difference as we can we clearly see. An area without litter (4.) is healthier and safer as well as more attractive (back to emotions!). Keeping your word (8.) presents a world that’s trustworthy. Plus lying has a negative effect on your body so it, too, circles back. Listening (6.) and really, really hearing what others are saying rather than plotting our witty responses, whether we agree with them or not, lays a needed foundation for a better world. Plus, it circles back to learning and, for me, being grateful. Finally, there is the one thing that I’m assuming is completely obvious. Vote (9.) In the chapter on this action there is one more suggestion. Vote for yourself. Everyday. As someone who matters. Let’s start the Make a Difference party.
What you do matters.
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* Moxie Moves: 10 easy ways to make a powerful difference, p. 56
Images from the top:
Despondency Jessica Watkins DeWinter
Moxie Moves on table Mary Barr Rhodes
Voting Spirit Moxie
During COVID, I wrote a Conversation piece around the importance of growing things called 
Many are on our basic “little things that can change the world” list.
Part of your job might be the dreaming that creates these — but it is certainly gratitude for them which helps give them power.
Almost everyone loves a good story, whether a formal tale or that anecdote about the guy in the supermarket. It’s one reason gossip is fuel for so many and, I’m guessing, is also the basis for serious insights revealed in therapy.
I got to this point by realizing I’m sometimes impatient when people see situations as hard (yes, I know I don’t know all of the details). And I realized why.
This, too, is a story. Somewhere there is a story that works for
Perhaps the most basic step or action to making a difference and changing the world and oneself is gratitude. Appropriately gratitude was one of the first “little things” we wrote about in Spirit Moxie’s Conversation posts. 
Surviving as a human is pretty much impossible without other humans. So we can see “thank you” as an acknowledgement of the web
Gratitude, on the other hand, is personal, although sometimes it is expressed publicly and certainly can be seen to touch thanks. Being grateful is not so much an acknowledgement of an action or experience as a perception of how that action or experience has affected you. Gratitude changes the way the world appears to us and makes us more productive and effective, a result scientifically studied by such writers as 
When I began writing this, I got a bit puckish and remembered the “Wild West” definition, with prospectors and land barons. In my imagination I saw dry creeks and hills. There, “claim” was a noun.
Intellectually how could your getting enough sleep* or
We read that we’re enough, are fabulous, are good the way we are. But our mind may say, “Who, you? Don’t be silly. You’re not big or strong or important enough to matter.” Thank your mind for sharing. You are all you have to offer. And it is enough. If you claim that and I claim that, we have enough people for that race. And others will join in.
This year I struggled with a post about the new year, which is why this post is early in the year, but not at the very beginning. I reread all the former end of/beginning of year Spirit Moxie Conversations. (I suggest the core 1916 post 
The second piece to help you remember: I kind of dare you to try. It is an exercise I love that apparently pushes people’s buttons. Ask someone — using these exact words — “Tell me how I’m fabulous.” You can ask me that question when you see me in person. Or, send me a 
But what did I mean by extravagances when I first listed this in 2013? There aren’t any notes, but I’m pretty sure the why and how of this has expanded, if not changed.
The diet example is maybe the easiest to understand. I usually ask for no cheese on sandwiches and omelettes as for me cheese only adds calories rather than flavor. But I enjoy good cheese with bread or crackers before dinner or even for dessert. Sometime in my late teens I decided cream and sugar in my coffee weren’t worth the calories, especially because I usually drank coffee with desserts. But now I have friends who will tell you that enjoying good coffee, usually black, is something they identify with me.
Note the phrase above of “enjoying and participating.” Enjoying the world is certainly central to having it be the world you know it could be. (“Changing the world” as the Spirit Moxie tagline reads.) When you are only angry with your partner or children, they never have a chance to blossom and be great around you. But when you enjoy being with them, enjoy their idiosyncrasies, and sometimes participate in what they love, something more beautiful than all of you becomes possible. Yes, I know that example is a bit simplistic. But think of our world the same way. What do you want to indulge in that is beautiful, extravagant, and that also, in some way, serves who you are? Getting up early to watch a sunrise? Ordering the real butter and the bread basket? Buying the shoes or spending the extra $40 for an upgraded airplane seat (yup – just did that)? And so, we participate. Not with something just because it’s there, but because it provides satisfaction and maybe a bit of joy.
Your list will be different from mine. I’m pretty sure you can’t imagine that sandwich without cheese and that you find delight in the cheapest ticket you can find when traveling. But watch and choose. My friend bought the most expensive champagne she could find when she sold her house. She drinks a low cost 
Spirit Moxie is now 10 years old, and many of the ideas we introduced in 2013 have become commonplace. Our central concept focuses on the power of positive change, but when we look around, it feels as if, rather than becoming more positive, the world has become darker: politics uglier, the environment more fragile, people less connected, and information and news increasingly unreliable. We have the tools to correct this. There are actions and mindsets to help prevent these problems! So why do they still exist?
At the beginning of each new year, I claim a word for the year. For 2023, my word is “curious.”