Premise

We live as though life happens to us.

We look at the world around us and believe that our circumstances create our thoughts, our emotions, our relationships, our choices and ultimately our lives. We say, “This happened to me, and therefore I feel this way.” We look outside ourselves for the explanation of what we experience inside.

But what if we have misunderstood the direction of life?

What if life happens inside before it happens outside?

Before an action, there is a thought.
Before a reaction, there is an interpretation.
Before a relationship changes, there is an internal shift.
Before a decision is made, something has already happened within us.
Before we change the world around us, something changes within us.

Our external world is often a reflection, expression or consequence of an internal world that we rarely stop to examine.

This does not mean that everything that happens to us is our fault. Life contains circumstances we did not choose, losses we could not prevent, people we cannot control and events that genuinely happen outside of us. But although we cannot always control what happens to us, we have far more influence over what happens within us than we have been taught to believe.

And that is where transformation begins.

Outside and Inside explores the remarkable relationship between our inner and outer worlds. It asks us to reverse the way we have traditionally understood life: instead of constantly trying to change the outside in order to feel different on the inside, what happens when we begin by understanding, healing and transforming the inside?

Because the quality of our thoughts influences the quality of our perceptions.

Our perceptions influence our emotions.

Our emotions influence our choices.

Our choices influence our behaviour.

Our behaviour influences our relationships.

And our relationships and choices gradually shape the life we experience.

The book therefore presents a simple but profound invitation:

Go inside first.

Before blaming the circumstance, examine the meaning you have given it.

Before trying to change another person, understand what is happening within you.

Before reacting, become aware.

Before judging, become curious.

Before running away from discomfort, listen to what it is trying to tell you.

Before demanding that life change, ask what might need to change within you.

The journey is not about escaping the outside world. It is about discovering the inside world that determines how we meet it.

The ultimate premise of the book is this:

We do not simply experience the world as it is. We experience the world through what is happening inside us.

And when we learn to understand what is happening inside, we begin to experience the outside differently.

The world may not immediately change.

But we change.

And because we change, the way we think, feel, choose, speak, love, respond and live begins to change.

Perhaps the greatest discovery is that the life we have been trying so hard to change on the outside may have been inviting us all along to begin somewhere much closer:

within.

Outside and Inside is ultimately a journey from unconscious reaction to conscious living—from looking outward for answers to becoming willing to look inward.

Because sometimes the way to change your life is not to change everything around you.

Sometimes, you simply have to change what is happening within you.