My entire belief system has been altered in the last few days. Breaking out of old belief systems is a matter of breaking old patterns, which is not an easy thing to do.
Change your scenery, change your friends, change the position of your furniture, change your diet, change your routines, change your clothes, change your attitude. All these strategies work to change how you perceive yourself and the world. It only takes 21 days to break old habits and create new ones, and it is thoroughly addictive when you see what self discipline and focus can do.
New talents can be invoked and the oldest questions revisited at any age.
I happen to like repetition and familiarity, as well as change. So I incorporate these seemingly juxtaposed circumstances into something that works on all levels. When I’m lifting weights, for instance, every repetition charges my cells and forces them into a new potential state of being. Better still, when I’m pushing out reps that cause pain, I feel weakness leaving my body, old patterns snapping under the weight of the pressure I’m choosing to impose on myself. My muscles feel oozy and my mind feels light and I hear myself thinking great things once the pressure’s off.
The more you do (to a reasonable limit, of course), the more you become.
Same thing happens when I’m doing cardio. I feel an elation that nothing else can provide because it’s my elation. It’s my choice to bring myself to these new levels of being. Time both stands still and rushes by instantly, as my life force courses through me and I lose myself in the throbbing sound of my heartbeat. My mind goes deep inside, in a vain attempt to escape the sometimes uncomfortable exertion, and I swirl into my chakras.
The mindset that is created from doing repetitions – whether it’s weights, steps, math, dishes, laundry or whatever – especially when you don’t feel like it – pushes both the mind and body into new levels of ability. Repetition, and exercise in particular, are vehicles – my blueprints and architect – to a better body and mind.
New neural networks are created every time we try something new: It’s like a secret room is added to the great cathedral of your own mind. As muscles grow from ‘repping it out,’ so does the mind’s ability to see and think outside the box of ‘just good enough.’
Laziness and doubt are easier than action and confidence. And although they are sometimes necessary, a body at rest tends to stay at rest. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, and in doing so, it moves the mind as well.
I have let go of being sure. I have let go of doubt. I have let go of perfection in reality but not in idea. Like Plato, I believe in perfect shapes, but to have one is no longer my goal.
As a result, everything I perceive now is more alive. The are subtle movements everywhere. Once mesmerized by emotion, I now feel what triggers the emotion. The emotions themselves offered something akin to a cheap buzz, but focusing on the underlying source of my feelings has greatly enhanced my perception. This process happens automatically – if one is willing to see it – when one moves, exercises and thinks oneself right into the uncomfortable realms.
Choosing to go into uncomfortable places not only makes one stronger and more confident, but better able to handle all things uncomfortable. It empowers you. The parts of you that once could not tolerate an ‘uncomfortable thing, place or person’, with practice, becomes accustomed to it, which allows you to reach further. What was once ‘too hard’ isn’t anymore. Which brings the mind into a state I like to call ‘oaaahhh yeeah.’ When you reach this point, the exploration of all that is ‘too hard’ becomes a fun and exciting journey, instead of a hard and annoying goal to accomplish.
Why? Because you chose.
Oaaaahhhh yeeeeah
Photo Credits
Standing Chakra Woman @ www.mandalas.com
An old friend of mine told me he really liked this piece, but that he wished I had said more specifically about how I changed. He suggested I reference day to day examples, from my unique point of view. The idea is good, but I’m not altogether sure it would make for good reading.
It’s funny: I love sharing my thoughts and feelings either in writing or in person. It gives me a sense of community; that I have contributed something – the best parts of me – to the world outside of me. I usually sit and wonder if anyone will respond, hoping that someone will read my words and know what I was trying to say, or feel that empathic, almost telepathic feeling that you know the reader.
But in truth, I don’t think I have anything unique or particularly marvelous to say. I love hearing new ideas and always hope to inspire others to share. Writing, to me, is like reading a great novel…it’s an escape from the mundane day to day grind. It’s a way for the highest parts of me to speak, and go into the deepest recesses of my imagination, to play in back asswards fodder.
I guess, like everyone, wherever I go, there I am.
Writing is a like a private sanctuary for me, and although I secretly want everyone to come into my mind and play with me, in a garden of great, spiritual and philosophical ideas, I am both sad and embarassed to admit that far too many people have come in and stomped my flowers.
Like other writers, I write what I know, and when I don’t feel good, I don’t write: I don’t like sharing bad, negative or pain-imbued thoughts. For a while, I had nothing good to say. Then for a while, I had nothing to say. Now, I have a lot to say, but where it comes from is so multi-layed and complex that I feel I must tread lightly. I must not stomp my own garden.
So to my friend and everyone who wants to know, I spend my time in the mundane, secretly mending my wounds, privately tending my garden; fertilizing it with the rotten mulch of old mistakes and watching my mind bloom to full life in the wake of the doubt, confusion and pain that once consumed me.
I will write more later. I have come to an end at that thought.