Changing Scenery To Change Your Mind
You may have heard the old adage that' ‘it’s not about having a new landscape but in having new eyes’. It’s a phrase in yoga that rings very true for the work that’s being done on the internal landscape. The goal (to heavily simplify) to reach a place that no matter where you are or who you’re with, all you see is love.
BUT it’s generally no small trip, when wandering down the lane of enlightenment. It’s fraught with every fragility, every hurt, every feeling of injustice, every fear, every bumpy moment of being bummed out, every broken heart and broken bottle of bad choices - all the things that condition us to behave, and to believe, in a certain way.
In these grooves we get stuck and even if we’re suffering, those grooves continuously reaffirming our behaviours and beliefs. Our daily life can become a rhythm that ploughs us more and more deeply into the trenches of unhealthy and harmful patterns.
So, whilst working on making the necessary changes inside to change the landscape on the outside, changing the landscape on the outside can give us a most excellent window to the inside.
Who are you when you’re out of your daily rhythm?
How do you behave when you don’t have your normal structures?
What beliefs hold true and which beliefs fall apart when you allow yourself to be immersed in that which is different? In new people? New places? Different cultures (even if it’s just a suburb or a city over?).
One of the most crucial parts of change is the simplest one of all - do something different. Whether that’s choosing a different cup for your tea, wearing a colour you normally wouldn’t, trying new foods, new words, new movements, sleeping on the other side of the bed, taking a different mode of transportation, sitting a different seat at the table or going somewhere you’ve never been before to do something you’ve never done before.
As I sit here and type this in our apartment in St Kilda, with an aching body (in the best of ways) after having unceremoniously camped on the front lawn of our son’s inner city sharehouse, after having humbly thrown myself down a mountain onto the ice and snow for five days, and had the best time with one of our two amazing daughters - I am different. The way that I view myself is different.
Views I held true about myself have changed. I invite you today to be brave. With kindness. With a deep slow breath, to stand a little taller, shoulders down and slightly back, and consciously place yourself to take in a different view. No matter how small or slight. Great insights can come in the most uncanny moments when we shift our gaze. Even just a little.
As Shane and I continue to travel these next few weeks in celebration of Shane’s 50th, we’ll bring you with us, however we can. Sharing practices with you whenever and wherever we can. Your travel guides to some different landscapes - earthly and spiritual.
Be the intrepid explorer of your own little Universe - I guarantee you know but one small room in the palace of your existence. Start poking around, you’ll be amazed at what you find
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Much love.
Lissie x