1. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it
When I think about changing my life, I would think of all the different things I would rather be doing with my time. I think to myself; “to change my life, I need to change what I do, because what I do makes up so much of my day and my life.”
But, I have come to understand maybe that it is not necessarily what I do, maybe it’s how I do it.
The first step is just so easy. Keep doing what you always do, but put all your energy and intensity into how you do it.
I wake up every morning.
Same thing every day.
It’s no simple thing, and yet I take it for granted.
We wake up in the morning still tired, still wanting to slip back into the warm comfortable unconsciousness of sleep. We reach for our phone/laptop and scroll through our feeds, filling ourselves with largely useless information. We are bombarded with thoughts of the day ahead, things to do, appointments to make, how many hours until we get to go back to sleep? We are filled with a sense of stress and urgency, mixed with dullness and lethargy.
So, let’s keep waking up in the morning, but let’s change our life by waking up differently.
Let’s wake up in the morning and actually feel what it is to wake up. To feel consciousness seep into your mind. Let’s feel each part of our body “wake up.” Let’s remember that we woke up today and that is no simple thing. So let’s smile. Let’s look over and see our partner sleeping deeply beside us and let’s realize that they are alive today and that is no simple thing. So let’s smile again for that. One of the most important people in our life is alive on this same day as you are. If that isn’t a reason to smile, I don’t know what is.
And let’s not reach for our phone right away. Let’s instead step out of bed, draw the curtains, crack open the window, let the sunlight and fresh morning breeze leak in. Let’s brush our teeth and wash up. Let’s water our beautiful plants. Let’s begin our day with our spiritual sadhanas so that we can switch ourselves “ON” for the day.
And we all have to eat. But this time, let’s not eat in front of the TV. Let’s fill our plate with more fresh raw foods so that their pranic value wont be lost in cooking. Let’s eat consciously, and quietly. Let us be grateful for the very process of eating. Of becoming one with the earth.
Something as ordinary as waking up, or eating a meal can be transformed into something magical and extraordinary.
And this is the way to change your life. Because when you change the how of your life, slowly the what will transform all by itself.
2. Cultivate goodness
There are many aspects of myself and my life that I would like to change. Things that I don’t consider “good” or beneficial.
A few years ago, I came to realize that I could either focus on my bad qualities and work desperately at changing them, or I could put all my energy into cultivating goodness and have that spill into my life. I chose the latter. Because that was about chasing joy and not about chasing pain.
So, this is my second tip for changing your life.
Don’t worry about your bad habits. Or things about yourself or your life that you don’t like. Instead focus on what you want to bring forth. What goodness you want to grow in your life. And do that instead.
Slowly your life will fill up with goodness that there just won’t be space for the bad stuff anymore.
3. Do what matters to you, be what matters to you
Life is short. Life is short and I don’t have time to waste doing things that don’t truly matter to me, or being something that doesn’t matter to me.
But what truly matters to me? That’s something that only I can know for sure, and it isn’t something that my family, or society can tell me. It has to come within. It requires me to be within myself for some time. What do I want to dedicate my life to? What does being alive mean to me? What is important to me? What must I stop ignoring?
4. Transformation: Keeping the light on
For real transformation to happen, a new level of life needs to be reached and maintained for sometime. It’s no good if we read an inspiring article, attend an awakening spiritual course, or have a blissful and explosive meditation in the morning, and then return to our old ways and our old life the next moment.
Transformation means making life brighter. It’s not turning on the light switch for a second and then switching it off. It makes sense to leave it on, doesn’t it?
So look back to the last time you reached a new energetic level. When was the last time you felt totally inspired, totally connected, totally alive? When was the last time you felt intense, present, vibrant, open, joyful? Thing of the last time you existed in that level of being.
Remember how you felt. And now bring that feeling back. Be in it again, be with it again. And now try to live that way for a month. Keep reminding yourself, daily, even hourly, if you need to. But stay here. Keep the light on.
And live this way for a month.
It’s possible. We can do it. We have to do it if we want to transform our lives. This is how we evolve, not if you just go back to the way things always were.
After a month of this has passed, life will already be remarkably different. A new light will turn on. A new part of yourself is illuminated. Now, keep that light on.
I love you.
malavika
xo
