The time for change
When you practice for quite some time you learn to observe the changes happening in the daily routine you have adapted. Either it being a physical practice or a mental one (the word spiritual seems to entail many characteristics that have unfortunately been misrepresented) you often confront changes that take place and are blatantly visible. You are often faced with the unprecedented fact of a posture finally finding its right place and you showing the right attitude. The breath seems to flow naturally and it’s with ease that you can now deal with what had seemed impossible even the day before. You can suddenly sit on your cushion for 40 or 50 minutes without being bothered by any bodily discomfort or a mental chaos that you were used to deal with every single time before that. And actually as the time goes by you might even have the chance to recognise more subtle changes that manifest themselves.
Through practice you brace yourself to welcome anything that belongs to the natural flow that is generically called life. You allow the space for minor or major differentiations without the sense of fear that you suddenly have to re-adapt to new conditions. Somehow you have seen things coming as you have spent enough time to watch your mental processes, categorise them under clear labels and understand that your mind is actually creating the stories that are so often called your own reality. So when this new era arrives you are ready to accept all that is without doubt or shaking. You feel motivated once again and ready to jump into the race with new power and devotion.
Even though it feels like the world is constantly speeding up, through your practice you learn to slow down, observe and accept without judgement or critique. Nothing seems to belong to the sphere of the unwanted since you believe this is a chance for learning and understanding. The flow of evolution brings about all that you might have wished for even in an unconscious level that is completely unknown to you, but you have now learnt to trust and thus accept without any further unwanted mental processes.
You now seem to believe that anything that comes has a reason to be there, either it belonging to karmic circumstances, new-age maxims or even logical mental calculations. No matter what the reason might be you now feel strong and confident to deal with whatever might appear on your doorstep. Change has become a chance to be productive, imaginative, loving and caring and does not fill you any more with sour feelings or anxiety. You can now feel that here is where you belong and that’s exactly how things should be without yearning for something else, for something more or something less.
Therefore keeping the practice alive and constant, getting every opportunity you have to jump on your mat or place yourself down on the cushion is the only way you can actually observe life. It is the chance to let go of any daily hectic thinking and return to the most important source of it all, the breath. And so you revisit, rediscover and re-evaluate all that has been of importance to you.