If you could make the world a better place through a message alone, what would it be?

This is part of a personal development exercise designed to help you figure out your mission–your purpose in this world.

Let’s say you had a magic wand that captured everyone’s attention, and you could tell them what you know to be true, and they would believe you–what would you say?

Here are some of the things I think our world, and in particular, American society, needs to hear most. I think these 5 lessons would transform our society and culture in a way that helps us all evolve and experience well-being.

1) Here in America, we need to start Thinking more Collectively and Holistically.

In eastern cultures – follow your passion, which is unique and individual, will result in expansion and improvements to the overall collective.

There’s something I’ve heard, which is that the masculine energy of the Universe is expansive, creates progress and innovation, but tends to leave a wake of chaos and destruction, and so the feminine energy of the Universe comes behind and heals, makes whole, and restores ecological balance.

We need both of these energies, but they need to be balanced. it’s a constant dance. So being mindfully aware.

An example of this imbalance in America is being so focused on innovation and technology that our earth is becoming polluted with chemicals. So focused on progress that our children are having mental health problems from stress –trying to keep up–and not receiving enough love and nurturing. So focused on building business that corporate interests have overshadowed the wellbeing of the citizens.

Again, there is a need for both energies. Progress and innovation is what has made America a powerful world leader.

And what if we were better able to balance? How much more prosperous would we be as a country if all of our citizens were feeling happy and healthy?

2. We need to prioritize relationships.

The fact that America has a loneliness epidemic is now common knowledge. Our lifestyles have caused us to lose touch with community, and this is harmful to the psyche, and our health.

We’ve evolved as humans to live in multi-generational communities. In a healthy, functioning community, this type of structure allows the society to collaborate, becoming stronger and wiser. But the community structure has eroded, everyone’s on their own to survive, overextended, and many of us have lost touch with our purpose.

Younger adults aren’t as interested in raising children. Older adults aren’t focused on cultivating and sharing wisdom with younger generations. We generally tend to be more focused on making money and entertaining ourselves, rather than making a contribution to our society.

I’m not saying this to shame anyone, or to hate on my own culture. This is just a natural consequence of how we are living. It’s not ideal.

But we need to go beyond restoring community. We need to have a new understanding of what relationships mean to us.

Because of the dual nature of our Universe, everything in life is a relationship. Other people are our mirrors, and can help us see aspects of ourselves–if we are paying attention.

Relationships are powerful vessels for personal transformation and shadow work. We learn, heal and evolve in relationship. And sometime that means developing a relationship with ourselves, but not at the expense of healthy relationships with others.

I believe this is the purpose for marriage, which has been largely lost amongst the non-religious in our culture.

And in a broad sense, how we treat as perceive other people, is oftentimes how we treat and perceive ourselves. So better relationships can help us have a better relationship with ourselves.

Extrapolating this concept of building better relationships to objects, places, or ideas, is what makes life beautiful. Ultimately, building a relationship with the earth will help us take better care of it.

3. We need to start becoming aware of our values, and prioritizing health and wellbeing.

There’s a famous quote from the Dalai Lama that demonstrates the craziness of the American mentality.

Because we live in a society that revolves around money, it’s easy to identify our collective values when we look at our spending habits. We spend money on things we value. We also prioritize the things we value. So what are we valuing?

And keep in mind, these values are programmed. Before we reach a mature and more conscious state of mind, we don’t question our thoughts, values and beliefs. Like a child taking on the values and thoughts of his parents, we also take adopt the values of those around us, those in our culture who influence us.

Because of this programming (which I would argue is influenced heavily by corporate interests), we aren’t set up to value our own health and wellbeing. This is something most people come to realize only after a crisis, and hitting a “rock bottom” moment (or a few).

And it’s only at that point we start to realize the truth in the saying “health is the greatest wealth.”

And this isn’t even just for the sake of preventing bad health in old age. Most of us are so used to living in a sub-par state of health and wellbeing, that we don’t know any other way!

I’ve seen in my own life, that the more you nurture your health and wellbeing, the better life gets. It’s one of the best investments people can make.

4. We need to become more aware – reclaim our attention and consciousness.

This is probably the most pressing issue right now because our technology has developed so quickly that children, who have never experienced a world without a non-stop media device (the phone) can become trapped.

The developmental period for children’s brains is very sensitive, and if they’re not growing enough capacity to interact with and enjoy the outside world, their motivational circuitry gets hijacked by advertisers and social media.

Attention is the most valuable commodity today. This is how money is made. If you have captive attention, you can convince them they need to buy X product, and you win – you make money.

Movies like Wall-E and The Matrix give a good visual as to where this is going.

So reclaiming our attention gives us a chance to develop more consciousness, to be sovereign beings in control of our lives, and to self-actualize– reach our full potential.

And reclaiming attention is just the beginning. It’s the foundation to increase consciousness, which we do though introspection, self-awareness, mind-training such as meditation, and opening our mind to new perceptions of reality.

5. We need to start becoming aware of energy, and raising our vibrations.

This one might be the toughest concept to get through to people, because we have such a rudimentary understanding of energy at this moment in time.

But just like in the 1500s, when Copernicus put forth the idea that the earth revolved around the sun (rather than the other way around), it was not immediately accepted. It was a total paradigm shift, and the scientific technology wasn’t advanced enough to prove he was correct. All he had was mathematical equations that suggested the idea was true.

Later we developed more and more technology that now prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that is true. And I think the same will be true with the understanding of the Universe in a more quantum and energetic sense — we don’t have the technology to “prove” it right now. But we will.

In the meantime, I don’t need to wait for technology to adopt this worldview, because adopting this paradigm shift in understanding how the world works is by far more helpful than the old paradigm. It works for a lot of other people too.

And I believe that working with our energy, and understanding the Universe in terms of energy (as opposed to just physical matter) is the next phase of human evolution, and will lead to an increase in collective and individual wellbeing.

What’s your message?

These are the essential messages I think need to be said, and heard, for our society to become better. And there’s a lot more to be said for transforming society.

Would your message be the same? What else would you add?

Might these messages be aligned with your purpose?