We live in an ever-expanding universe. This macrocosm can be cultivated within your own consciousness through a number of ways. The first step is always to stop and discover your own personal state of being. Are you tired and sluggish from long hours at work? Are you uninspired from your monotonous daily routine? Are you wired from the caffeine or jittery from the sugary snacks? Are you daydreaming of being anywhere but here? Am I breathing shallow or deep? Am I slouching or sitting up tall?
When we begin to take the time to look within ourselves and allow the honest answers to arise, if we listen carefully, we will be surprised at how just slight changes can improve our lives.
The most common conversations I have with friends and acquaintances revolve around how to change one's perspective. This also happens to be one of my biggest passions and greatest challenges, which is why I study so much about this topic.
I remember during the Blackout of 2003, when the entire Northeastern powergrid went down, I remember meeting a new group of friends because we all shared this experience. During our long walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, my friend spoke about how his life was successful financially but terribly boring and routine. The frustration of his soul is what I remember most, he felt trapped but the routine nature of his life. The advice I gave him was to try simple things to change his experience of the everyday. For instance because we live in NYC where we all walk to our destinations, which is in itself a blessing for keeping our bodies in use, I suggested that he try walking a different way to the office and a different way home. Rather that walk the same way, taking the same route, seeing the same shops and people, just turning a different corner may alert you to a new discovery. Something that brings joy to you and that you never knew was right around the corner because you simply never walked that way.
I ran into this friend a year later and his life had completely changed. He looked happy and was living more proactively. He told me he started walking a different way to work and one day he ran into an old college friend who alerted him to an opening available at a design firm. He applied and was offered the new job and now loves the work he is doing. He thanked me and went on his way.
The lesson being that because we are creatures of habit, it's easy for us to become complacent, especially if life affords a certain amount of comfort.
We recreate our lives every day we wake up from sleep. No, it's not a completely blank slate, that would be too much. But the little ways we create our days begins when we wake up. Taking a minute to say I love you to yourself when you look in the bathroom mirror to walking or driving a different way to work. Try saying hello to stranger and be surprised by the extend of power you have to respond to the world around you.
May you be blessed to experience more of joys and wonders of life.
