How can you change the world… One flap at a time?
If you had told me a year ago that a single mutation giving birth to a teeny tiny virus called COVID-19 would alter the way of life for humans in the span of just a few months, I would have laughed. But that is how much, a single event in another corner of the world can have the power to affect us!!
OK. What’s this butterfly effect??
What does it have to do with the above statement?
Butterfly effect is the idea that small things can have non-linear impacts on a complex system. The concept was imagined with a butterfly…somehow.. and it’s suitable for complex systems like the weather, cosmic events, etc…
A butterfly’s wings flapping in one corner of the world, at a particular time in space might create tiny changes in the atmospheric pressure that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in another location on the other side of the world.
Photo by Vivek Doshi on Unsplash
If you think about human history and the events that alter the way of our lives.. it is a very complex system of probability and possibility too!! We never know how a small change to the past might change our present.
My first statement about the COVID situation is a living example of this theory.
Also,
If a supernova had not occurred at a particular space-time, our star-the Sun would never have born.. then the events leading to the formation of our planet- the Earth would never have occurred…and the Earth might never even have seen life…
If Gandhi’s mom’s mom’s dad’s mom’s dad had decided to go celibate, Gandhi would never have been born, India might not have achieved its independence the way it did…maybe even never.
Do you get the idea?
It’s just to signify the effect that a seemingly small event has.. to alter the path of the future… In a significant way.
“You could not remove a single grain of sand from its place without thereby … changing something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole.”
— Fichte, The Vocation of Man (1800)
There is even a movie made based on this effect (you guessed it.. ‘The Butterfly Effect’).
In this movie, actor Ashton Kutcher plays a man who has found a way to travel back in time to his youth. Each time he returns to his childhood, he makes minuscule changes that radically alter his life in the present, inevitably leading to terrifying results.
But the effect can be either positive or negative.
This movie made me wonder…
If I ever got the chance to travel back in time and correct one thing, what would it be?
Being an admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche‘s way of thinking, I embrace my fate/life with all its flaws (Amor fati). But there is one thing that my mind can’t resist wondering…
WHAT-IF I had started to practice yoga as a child?
Flashback: My yoga journey began with YouTube a few years ago. Then…I got curious to learn more about this way of life. That made me take up a teacher’s training course. That decision made a huuuge difference in the quality of my practice. The side effects have been life-altering!! Physiologically, Physically, Mentally, and Spiritually! (I call it the positive PPMS of yoga)
Have you ever met a friend and gotten along so well with them, that you wonder .. WHY DIDN’T WE MEET EARLIER!??
That is how I feel about yoga too:) But there’s no use in WHAT-IF kinda questions.
How can I use this to change the future? Change the world I am in? Now that’s the right kinda question!!
This thought-train took me to…
What if all the kids started practicing yoga?
Let’s just imagine they all did… Ok?
What would be the result?
Improved focus — Better and productive innovators
Better decision making — Yoga is all the self help that your kid will ever need. And the world is in dire need of compassionate rulers that take inclusive decisions…
Better health — Duh!…Remember PPMS!
Self-awareness — And in turn better emotional health and resilience
Better citizens, better homes, better societies, better countries and in turn a better planet.
I can’t help but get reminded of the visionary Abdul Kalam here. He strongly believed that the ability to dream for a better world and the energy to make it a reality is in the Youth of today!!
“Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is harmony in the house; when there is harmony in the house, there is order in the nation; when there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world” — A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
Abdul Kalam dreamed something better for the nation and the whole world. To make his dream a reality, we have to pick up the strongest tools and use them head first.
And Yoga, according to me is undoubtedly such a clever tool, that has all the non-linear benefits in shaping a better future for any kid.
And if all the kids took up that tool??
I mean…
If one butterfly flap could lead to a tornado… What is a million butterfly flap capable of doing??
The beauty of this theory is that it shows how small a step can bring about huge and drastic benefits!! If you think you want to change the world…you don’t even have to do something humongous….you just have to be that small butterfly and show your kid how fun yoga really is…
Maybe that single flap by you, will cause a pressure capable enough, to bring about huge changes in humanity through your kid!! Thus making the world a better place to live in.
Be that Butterfly…be the Change!!
