I find changing your life to be a most interesting process… It is like flying in an airplane; at the beginning of the flight you have to strap yourself in because the ride is going to get ROUGH! Which is quite odd, yes? Recently, I have been experiencing this in multiple aspects of my life, but why does it get rough?
Why do we experience turbulence?
This is the puzzle that always remains for me and moreover it is the Truth about Greatness. When we commit to changing ourselves or an aspect of our lives, we have to first break the habit of beginning who we are. In some sense we are trying to create a version of ourselves that is Yin without Yang. This is where I believe we start to experience and create turbulence or resistance within our lives.
The Friction of the Opposites…
It is through the friction of opposites that all of life exists. Without contrast how would we know happiness, love, compassion and their opposites? How do we know abundance without scarcity? It is in duality that we find ourselves, we aren’t separate, but rather the union of these opposites. This principle is a fundamental in higher Mathematics and in Physics as well as Yoga. The word Yoga means “union,” in yoga there is a duality between who you are and who you can become.
Over the past few weeks, I have been examining myself to clarify where I am and where I want to be. Asking myself who do I want to become?
This truly has been an interesting experiences, I see the duality within myself in so many ways. Financially, I have committed to a spending fast to help to reduce my student loan debt with the goal of bettering my life. The irony is that I took on the student loan debt to obtain an education to better my life. Both sides WANT THE SAME THING! Both aspects are part myself…
Fear of being vulnerable…
Physically, I have committed to losing weight, which has been a struggle for me at times through the last 4-5 years. I have been examining the contrast between my “fat-self” and my “thin-self.” Ultimately, I have realized that yes though appear to be very different on the surface they both fundamentally want one thing to be loved and to be accepted. I feel that the “fat-self” exists because I am using my fat to protect myself, because of the fear of being hurt.
Sure I can do all the programs, change my eating and workout… but none of it address the root or source of the problem which is the fear of being hurt or vulnerable. Interesting, enough we can not have love without being vulnerable… in some ways it feels like being a hamster on a wheel… the faster the wheel goes the faster you have to run to stay in the same spot. We have the illusion of moving or create movement, yet we have travelled nowhere. That isn’t to say that the exercise itself is meaningless…
The goal for changing myself isn’t to destroy a part of myself… but rather to be in a state of becoming, state of growth. This I believe can be accomplished by first acknowledging that I have brought myself where I am…
One of my favorite quotes by Albert Einstein is the following:
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
We cannot fashion a life or the body of our dreams without first recognizing, what has brought us to this point in our life and it is through that recognition that we start to choose a different path. That is both an empowering and terrifying realization; it is through these moments that we can create a shift within our lives and within ourselves. It’s a Baby Step Towards Greatness!!