Restoration – Week 4 of 40 Days To Personal Revolution
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“Almost anything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… even you.” – Anne Lamott
“If you have no time to rest, it’s exactly the right time.” – Mark Twain
As we remove obstacles from our path we gain clear space for the things that restore us: solitude, meditation, connection to dear ones, enjoying nature/music art.
Leonardo Di Vinci would seem to be a man who never rested – if we look at the quantity and quality of work he produced, and yet even he recommended seeking out balance:
“Every now and then I go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer… Go some distance away, because the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony or proportion is more readily seen.”
The busier we are – at work, with our families – the more we benefit from some time alone – to reset, to restore and find calm. A physical cleanse might allow us to restore our digestion and leave us lighter and more energetic. Meditation at the start of the day or broken into moments throughout the day might further help our mental restoration.. as Baron Baptiste describes:
“Meditating this way has proven to be salvation for me. If I have had an emotionally challenging or upsetting experience I feel that my judgement is off that resentment has reared its ugly head, I know to remove myself and sit quietly in order to restore myself to sanity.”
Law 7 – Relax with what is
- The moment you stop forcing a result, you develop a mental and muscular poise under pressure.
- Realise your growth not by forcing a result but through the trust that transformation will be revealed when you let your energy flow freely.
We are constantly put under pressure and can feel there is a right response we must strive for, but what if we relax in the face of these challenges and through doing so allow a universal positive force to flow through us more freely?
Yoga master B.K.S Iyengar once said: ”Before we can find peace among nations, we have to find peace inside that small nation which is our own being.”
We all find different yoga poses challenging and meet barriers within them. It is when we can relax and breathe into them, rather then meet them with a fight, that we soften into the poses and find new stretch and new strength within ourselves. We can gain new direction if we meet discomfort as it is – and allow it to be, and then to pass.
“Adversity reveals genius” – Horace
Law 8 – Remove the rocks
- Transformation comes not by adding things on but by removing what didn’t belong in the first place.
- The greatest power we have over ourselves is our ability to change our minds about ourselves.
We can look at change as moving rocks from our path, more an unlearning process than a learning process. When we were children we were free and fearless but time teaches us all kind of ego based habits and hindrances. As Baron Baptiste says: “We change by peeling away all the away toxic layers, emotional debris and beliefs that we have added on over the years.”
Yoga practice can break stuck physical patterns and open the body. Meditation can remove clutter from our minds. Questioning ourselves can lead to self discovery about what we are holding on to, what do the rocks on our paths hide and where are we afraid to go without them? The journey of transformation leads inside to our most simple self – behind the distractions and obstacles – there always – quietly waiting for us.