Don't we all want to change the world? We'd love to think that each one of us will, and I believe that we do, but not on our own. We take small steps to make good choices and be a positive affect on others. From my faith perspective, I believe we need God's help to do this. I'd like to inspire you today to think about how you can affect positive change in the world around you.

This topic has come up for me because May was Food Allergy Action Month, with Food Allergy Awareness Week May 15-22. For those who don't know, my oldest son has life-threatening food allergies, and we are always proactive in informing others about what that means. In addition, today is World Eating Disorders Action Day, with this year's goal of breaking stigma surrounding eating disorders and treatment. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen some information about both of these. It seems that there is always a national or world day of something happening, and there pretty much is. How can we make a difference in all of the chatter?

Each of us has a sphere of influence, a circle of people with whom we are in contact on a regular basis. This might be our family, our friends, our roommates, our coworkers, or our classmates. It could also be people who we don't really know, like the barista at the coffee shop, people on an elevator, or fellow commuters on a train. Paying attention to these people and taking time to extend kindness to them is how we can change the world. Ask someone how they are and listen to their answer. Encourage someone by telling them they are doing a good job. Find out about your roommate's stressful work place or your sibling's tough class. This is how we make a difference. When we help the people around us, they help the people around them, and the ripple effect continues.

I can just hear some of you saying, "But I need to work on myself first." This is somewhat true. We need to take care of ourselves, to nourish ourselves physically and spiritually. Yet we can still reach out to others and affect them positively if we are struggling. And I find that when I do this, it helps me as well.

So maybe I didn't tell you about eating well today and maybe I didn't inspire you to change something drastically. But I hope I encouraged you to think about what is around you and in your path that you can influence in a positive way. Eat well, change the world, and prosper!