Hello and Happy Holidays!

Hope this finds you eating well and enjoying friends and family. I wanted to reach out for my second round of thoughts on mindset. If you didn’t get a chance to read through Mindset #1 check it out here. This series is my effort to make the most of the good things about resolution: the reflection, the self inquiry, the curiosity.

I want to harness the potential for pattern interrupts … starting at the base, starting with our mindset. 

Today, I want to share one of the most prevalent mindsets that puts all of us in a stuck position. The position of getting in our own way. Let’s face it, there are enough obstacles at play each day, may we all try not to be our own biggest blockade. Can we start by noticing where we are rigid and with expertise, smooth our edges, soften where it is most useful.

Mindset #2 : I hate change
Evidence Collected : “There is so much uncertainty in change. I fear what I cannot know. I am comfortable in my known discomfort, let’s just keep it that way. Transition is always hard. I am who I am and I want to stay this way.”
Pattern Interrupt :  Change is unavoidable. The best thing I can do is become more adaptable. I am steady, even in adaptability. No matter what the change is, I know I can handle it. I choose to embrace the mystery of what may come. I am not my tendencies or my preferences and therefore, I am not my habits. There is power in vulnerability because I have to feel more than I can think.

This is a pivotal tool when we pattern interrupt. I have to feel more than I can think. 

It is when we think our way through everything that change becomes terrifying and overwhelming. In a culture where the practical mind is most praised, this is a practice of unlearning for each of us. This is why the future becomes a muddy distortion of the worse case scenario. For most of us, our mind tracks towards the worst possible outcome, instead of asking “what is the best thing that could happen?” The later is the muscle that needs exercise. We trick ourselves, that the first sentiment is how we prepare.

I remember from my childhood, the lesson ‘hope for the best and plan for the worst.’ I have lived by this for most of my life. Thinking, this is smart. This is prepared. This is self sufficient and controlled. This is also extremely fraught.

When we let go of the control of what is to come we have to engage in our own involution. This is the practice of experiencing life as it unfolds, allowing room for growth and deeper understanding. Instead of outer evolution, we discover more of our own steadiness. We start to take the time to realize our predispositions, our reactivity, our dogmas that create quite a suitcase to haul around.

Here is a passage from the Yoga Sutras that I find helpful in emptying my suitcase. Read it, chant it or leave it … whatever feels right to you.

2.10 – Te Pratiprasavah Heya Sukshmaha
Te- These
Prati- In opposition, against
Prasavah- Procreation, generation (prati prasava = involution)
Heyah- To abandon, desert, relinquish, emit, renounce, abstain
Suksmah- Subtle, minute, delicate

Subtle afflictions (of the mind) are to be minimized and eradicated by a process of involution (turning inward, as in meditation).

The moment we think that we have it all figured out and that there is nothing more to learn is a very dangerous place.

Check your mindset as you cruise into the New Year. Check where you are open and where you think you have it all figured out. Practice getting comfy cozy with what you don’t have figured out, to the possibility of change. I know, I know this is a little counter to the norms of resolutions but could also be one of the best gifts we could ever give ourselves.

All the Best and Full of Love