Books Bind Us and Change Us

 

I spotted this gentle little reminder as I walked this morning. Finding quiet is something you seek. It doesn't just appear, it is not given to you. But if you search for it, it is there.

A young man was sitting under this tree, and it is only as my walking partner and I approached did I see that he was reading a book. He sat still. He did not look around, he was not distracted by all of us walking by.

I wondered what he was reading. I hoped.

Something life-changing?

Philosophy? 

Something deep? 

 

Some minutes later as we returned up the same path, we saw him making his way from under that (Bodhi?) tree. He happened to join alongside us as we walked along the ridge overlooking the water below.

I took a photo of you, I said, you looked like you were meditating about something.

Yes, he replied.

I hope it was mindful, I queried. He smiled. He was not put off by a complete stranger questioning him. It's as if his thoughts were still trapped between the pages he had been reading. (Tweet This)

He tightly clutched his book, he did not reveal what he had been engrossed in. He just calmly smiled.

The book he needed today, his secret still, his moment.

I too have had those moments, I too have leapt into a book, either with confidence or fear of what it held for me. Not knowing what it might say that I needed to know, because one day I would hear more than words.

Could he have been reading, A Handbook for New Stoics: How to Thrive in a World Out of Your Control? A book I found so valuable that it could change your life?

Or could it have been Following the Wrong God Home which I read so many years ago and had a profound affect on how I saw the world?

I hope I captured his moment of change. I hope that he realized that the universe had let me witness his learning. When slowly or suddenly, things are just a little bit more clear. (Tweet This)

Because that's how change happens, whenever we are ready to hear it and accept it. The Last Arrow , another piece of wisdom which prompted me to continue sharing my words at a time when I questioned their value.

Books bind us together. How easily we can chat with a stranger we see on the bus who is also reading the same book. Or recommend to a fellow browser in a store the recent title of one we enjoyed.

We need to hold our book close, like the young man I met, and then to share when we are ready.

 

Now tell me, which book changed what you knew about yourself and the world around you? (Tweet This) 

Stay well, stay safe.

 

 

Books to Bind You and Change You:

     

Re-Wording Right Now During Self-Isolation

Re-Wording Right Now During Self-Isolation

re-align re-do re-create just a few re-words

then there's re-try re-imagine re-work

there are a lot of re-words available right now (Tweet This)

what about re-read

re-plant

re-pack

re-wash

Re-Wording Right Now During Self-Isolation

re-organize

re-discover

re-order

re-assess





one of these days we'll resume, there will be no hyphen (Tweet This)

how are you preparing?

what will we take with us

what will we discard


what direction will we go

this is our chance to re-think

and then restore what we are, who we've become, which way we're going

Re-Wording Right Now During Self-Isolation

Who will we Be when we are finished re-wording? (Tweet This)


Send me some other re-words you are using and add to this list. (Tweet This)



Be well,

Searching for the Middle (to Keep Your Balance)

Yoga in the morning. A restful sleep. Not too many people on the roads.

Searching for the Middle to Keep Your Balance 

Courtesy Pixabay photo-graphe

Some of us know each other, some are new to the class. A woman I haven't seen before, puts down her mat and says, I guess I should get the other crap now too. I laugh, yoga and crap, two words I have not combined in one sentence in a while. She looks around, and goes to get the props we'll use today.

We are all new to this building, a new location, some distance from our previous site. Brand new, finding our way, hoping there are coat racks this week. Finding our preferred spot in this long, narrow room. So different from what we were used to, where we each knew where we belonged.

My yoga teacher reminds us to slow our breath. She tells us we will build the class to finish with some balancing. There are loud groans in the class.

She guides us to standing on one leg, swaying, looking upward, growing our branches. There are giggles of frustration or embarrassment as we take turns falling out of the pose.

Each day differs from the one before, our teacher says, some days we are solid, some days we waver.

Searching for the middle to keep your balance.

Searching for the Middle to Keep Your Balance

In our family, our work, our yoga practice. In the traffic, in our relationships, in our goals.

There are days when our class is easier than others. Some days all we can manage is to sway. Balance is serious business. (Tweet This) Don't forget to breathe. But if we keep our eyes forward, we know that we are in this together, we can see the humour in our daily practise.

As in our new yoga studio, each day we know that things are not the same. That there will be surprises (what, that was only 2 hour parking?). That someone will arrive late and distract you. That someone in the corner is sneezing, again.

At the end of the class, we all put away our props (our toys?), we lend a hand to others to clean up, we chat with the stranger, and welcome back those we haven't seen for a few weeks, we smile at how much the young pregnant woman has grown. We glow with her.

We're all looking for the middle, we enjoy the familiar, sometimes we brace for the new, and then with time, it becomes normal (Tweet This). We can hardly remember when it was new. We just need to keep our balance until then.

And most often, if we just put away our own crap, we can find the middle together.


That constant search for something between the familiar and the new is our learning. That moment of comfort keeps us in balance.

We need the middle until we find a new middle. That's how we grow. (Tweet This).



Now tell me, how do you find your balance in the middle?


Be well,

The Stripe of the Lion

It is never too late to reform,

as long as you have the sense to desire it,

and the strength to execute your purpose.

Anne Bronte

Courtesy Pixabay - djsudermann

We have all heard of stories of people who have turned their lives around…but deep down do we adhere to the adage “you can’t change a lion’s stripes”. Yes, I did say lion, and we all know that lion's don't have stripes.

There are millions of books which offer a learning opportunity for anyone on the growth path, or someone wanting to improve their finances, their physique, or eliminate their over-cluttering habit. Do we help another change instead of following their accustomed path?
Or does it scare us for many reasons?

We might read the book, listen to the podcast, repeat the words but do we often put what we've heard into action? We'll get to it ...next. And next rarely happens.

So when we see someone start to change, it's uncomfortable. We know them the way they are.

When we listen to someone suffer from a remark they feel was pointed to them, or whine about the way things are, what do we do? Usually nothing. Because that is who they are. That's the way it's always been.

We count on the lion to stay the same. We don't expect them to have a bolt of understanding and become someone new. It takes time. And patience for both of us.

Little steps, forward steps, backward too. Pacing along the perimeter.

We are learning something new also. About ourselves.

Courtesy Pixabay - LoveallArtsof Pictures

We know that the caged lion can be angry, can retreat with angst, and growl in our face.

For this reason, we usually step back. We may offer the words, the extended hand, which say we understand. But then we withdraw. There are bars in cages for a reason.

We like the animal we know. We are still afraid of lions, whether we see them developing the signs of change or not. We don't want them to get better than us.

We don't want to get bitten or left behind. (Tweet This)

Do we support each other as we change our stripes? (Tweet This)


Keep looking. When you find it, make it better. ©

Saying Goodbye on the Yoga Mat

So many changes at this time of year. From our little ones heading into their first classroom to those starting their first official day of retirement, and everyone in-between. How do we manage? How do we cope? What are we teaching each other?

This is a month when I feel it's a time of change and transition. Just like my fellow yoga practitioners as we said goodbye to our teacher, you too might be facing a new you.

Saying Goodbye on the Yoga Mat

I remember when our teacher was new. Of course we all had thoughts in our heads. Would she challenge us? Would we like her style? Would we stay or go?

As with all our goodbyes, in every aspect of our previous experiences we must evaluate what this chapter in our lives brought to us. When our teacher first told us to breathe in to a count of 4 and exhale to the same count and then increased it to 6 or 7, yes there was a moment of stillness, of surprise. What? or for some of us WHAT? How could that be? How could we do that?

No one wants to look like a fool.

However as time went on, we were able to do precisely "that". We were able to challenge our previous thoughts and push our boundaries. Oh, it was definitely not comfortable, let's say that right now! And although the practise of yoga is supposed to be our practise (we're all learning something), not the practise of the person beside you (put away the comparison), not what you see in Yoga Journal (not everyone can bend like that, honestly), not what you see on Facebook (show me the real you not a meme), you still have that moment of but...but...but. We resist.

"What you resist, persists."

Carl Jung 

We want to be in control, because we are just human, we want to fit in and we don't want to stand out (foolishly) except if we stand out as awesome, magnificent, better than any one else we know. Right?

Our egos can speak really really loudly.  

That's why yoga has taught me so many things. That's why we are told to stay in the stillness between our breaths, because it is silent, uncomfortable, uncertain, and we just have to wait. Something that most of us are not practising each day off the mat. We want to get the rewards without putting in the time to learn. We want the hack.

As Erwin Raphael McManus shared in The Last Arrow: Save Nothing for the Next Life we want the (perfect) life without suffering the wounds, without the scars. We want it to happen easily.

Yoga has taught me about saying goodbye to old beliefs. It can give you the courage to breathe into the unknown. To stand on your toes. To reach. It can teach you to trust. And to know that you will grow and get better, if you allow it. But it is hard work. It is commitment. It is discipline. It is saying goodbye to what was.

It is saying hello to what is to come.

How yoga is teaching me to say goodbye well. (Tweet This)

Lessons on the yoga mat, breathing and reaching into change. (Tweet This)