This post mainly stems from an article in Yoga Journal this month. The article expresses how good meditation is for getting us used to the idea of just starting over. When you meditate, you try to clear your mind, and every time a thought enters, you let go of that thought and start over again, until the mind becomes quiet and still. I never get to that point, but I do get to a calm level where my thoughts don’t bother me so much anymore.
Last night, I slipped off my diet, so today, I’m starting over again on that. The phrase that stuck with me from the article was, “Well, I just screwed up, and now I’m just going to start over.” I liked that phrase, because there is the acceptance of the mistake, the getting over it, and the restart all in one handy little phrase. So often we get into the blaming loop, blaming ourselves over and over when we mess things up. For me this used to lead into depression. These days, I let go of things easily and move on.
We’re coming up on Solstice, and I’ve decided to use that as a restart point for my year, after reading this post on Farrfeed. My thought is to write out all the things I want to rid myself of, all the bad habits and things I need to let go of, and toss them into the Solstice fire. And then start over, with my New Year and lengthening days full of intention and mindfulness and the things I want coming into my life, instead of the frustration at not having my life be just as I would like it to be.
I’m also thinking about ideas for restarting my blogging practice. Last year, I tried to blog about art journaling, which didn’t really last all that long. I may try to restart my journaling practice, since i have several blank journals sitting about. I am feeling the need to get more art back into my life. And the political urgency is dying down, with the shift in congress giving me the feeling that at last people are at least paying attention and aware that we need change. So Changing Places will be changing as well, taking on new focus.
Process always fascinates me, particularly the process of change itself. It’s difficult to get people to change the way they do things, to shift to a new structure or order or to allow structure and order to develop in their lives and work, rather than simply reacting chaotically to whatever happens. Most people don’t realize that chaos itself is a process, just not a well-ordered one. Chaos leads us to think we have no control over what happens, but it is also a mindset that leads to many points of starting over. Those who think they must constantly be in control, and can never start over fresh, are the ones who end up with the most problems, since they can’t admit mistakes and change direction. We certainly see this in our political leadership today.
So this is what will be on my mind for the next couple of weeks. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I would love to hear them, as well as stories about how you’ve started over in your lives. Let me know if you want them posted or not. You can email me at donna at woodka dot com, or just leave me a comment. I would love to hear from my “six or seven readers”, as my brother refers to my blog readers….
“Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” — Carl Bard
“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” — Henry David Thoreau
“It is important to do what you don’t know how to do. It is important to see your skills as keeping you from learning what is deepest and most mysterious. If you know how to focus, unfocus. If your tendency is to make sense out of chaos, start chaos.” — Carlos Casteneda
“As you begin changing your thinking, start immediately to change your behaviour. Begin to act the part of the person you would like to become. Take action on your behaviour. Too many people want to feel, then take action. This never works.” — John Maxwell
Supposing you have tried and failed again and again. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call “Failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down.” — Mary Pickford
“Change starts when someone sees the next step.”
— William Drayton
“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.” — William Somerset Maugham
3 Responses
Boy are those some great quotations. I especially like Castaneda and Maugham, but they’re all good.
As for suggestions, I don’t think you need any — you’re rockin’ right along here. i will say, though, that what jumps out at me is “putting more art into my life.” It’s not escape, either, but allowing something else to come into being, yes? Opening a channel that’s been closed for the last few years for many of us, etc., and boy do we need it!!!
I see I quoted you wrong, but so what. Sounds good.
I’ve been thinking about getting back to writing music and might blog about that more. We’re still not past the critical time for making our intentions manifest in the world, there will come (and it is already becoming more) time to rest and create without urgency.