It’s rare that someone actually likes making New Year’s resolutions, at least that’s what I’m hearing from many clients and friends right now. Or maybe we like the excitement of effort and hope that our usual “maybe this year?!…” energy brings, but not THIS year. 2022 is feeling like a year that didn’t really start yet. 2021 felt much like that too, but it felt like there was more hope when we learned a vaccine for COVID was ready to fully roll-out. But then all that happened and here we are. Surprised? Not surprised? Good? Bad? Who Knows?….
Some years back, I shifted the resolution game into a simple welcoming of the already present, wave of new year energy. Nothing to change or request but a welcoming of change to my life that is already present in the natural planetary cycle of a new year. I wanted to take the opportunity to welcome any new, vibrant and refreshed energy into my entire year and not expect the setup of a resolution that could potentially throw me off when I fell off. The old plan seemed to perpetuate the “I can’t” while the new version helped inspire the “I can.” What I’ve learned along the way is that any changes require a disciplined mind. So in some ways, the new-year-energy is useful and can work. It must or else we’d have all given up on this decades ago and lost the tradition. Or maybe it’s just a total marketing manipulation for our capitalist economy?! Ok simmer down now… For many it works and it’s better than giving no attention to improving ourselves or a situation. I support that we all must keep learning and being willing to challenge ourselves in some way so that as the times change, we discover what are our constants, and how to navigate ourselves along and within the moving tides.
What I keep learning, time after time is that I’m not in control of the outcomes of the ever-changing external world. I CAN be a part of the collective movement like making donations to local charities or joining a rally for equity and social change. Or maybe even be a single mover of change by choosing a plant-based diet for ethical reasons or giving support to a family member with a small act of kindness. But the big turning wheel of life isn’t in my hands. There are those who have great wealth and power and with those material possessions, the illusion of control is even more tricky because of all the ways that power feels to enable an almighty hand. But once again, even with all the knowledge and wisdom of the world, we are a very limited bunch when we think of how much mystery exists on our planet and in our entire world and galaxy. I support and commend every which way we feel a sense of self in this complex realm of being, and I believe all ways have meaning. Some easier to explain, some hard to understand and make space for. Sometimes it certainly feels like these larger entities are in control of our fate, but on another turn of the mind, they never can be. There is a resource within every person that cannot be taken or manipulated because it’s in the hands of a force that is beyond the limited power of any human being or element within this world of duality.
So what to make of this? Do we figure it’s no use and throw our hands up? Do we just live without concern or care for others? That certainly is an option and one that many choose in a variety of ways like following the rules of your personal tolerance and ignorance during a pandemic versus honoring the universal understanding of viral transmission and guidance by those who know and continually study the science of health. I mean, the way I see it and follow with the Kleshas (known in Sanskrit as the causes of suffering as outline in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali), we are all ignorant of many things in this vast universe. And when we can deeply study and comprehend these teachings, it settles the battle of endless pursuits of chasing happiness on the outside. Let’s accept there is always room to update the files of being and with a practice of humility and with grace, it gets easier one day at a time.
Being a plant-based eater and a self-proclaimed nutrition and well-being advocate, I have certainly learned not to trust all the messaging from our FDA and certain governmental agencies. I understand where skepticism and blindly following the rules of the larger entities feels potentially harmful. Many popular health directives are either focused on the well-being of pharmaceutical companies and mega-corporations versus individual health, or they are in serious need of updates to match the current knowledge from experts in less commercialized fields. Because research now clearly points to the fact that nearly all cardiovascular diseases are treatable and often reversible with diet, it’s a sham that so many billions of dollars go towards medication versus education. It’s frustrating that our educational system for young minds hasn’t changed in decades and is in desperate need of that so our history books are helping shape the true story of who we really are. I would love it if classes on nutrition and well-being were highlighted subjects not side notes briefly offered. I would love seeing education for compassion and kindness included in “the books.” But this is our world and once again, I can push towards the vision I have and at least be on the right side of history as we say, or give in with exhaustion and hopelessness which works very well with big pharma and the doubters and folks who spend a significant amount of time following ideas that have been formulated from speculation and a hive mentality that is more divisive than inclusive.
I’m also coming to sense my intolerance for the yo-yo style of freedom versus a slower, constant and steady leaning towards freedom and liberation. The roller coaster of discipline tends to captivate the mind in a way and it feels like progress. There are highs and lows but then where is that comfortable plateau that likely is our default? Will we always end up back there until we have a true reason to make that change? A real impulse that is maybe almost painful so that we realize that comfort zone is actually a mirage? On some level we understand that change is inevitable. But in another moment, we despise an expanding, more equitable and changing world because it triggers the need, or rather what we have is the option for us to change on the inside.
Keep it simple. That’s what I often remind myself after a meditation and writing on these sorts of thoughts. Not that I want to dull my mind into nothingness, it’s so that I can energize the calm center of being that quietly transforms and identifies the nothingness of worldly pains and pleasures, and moves through the profound portal of subtle existences and bursts open that somethingness we can barely explain with our human minds. It is endless like the eternal knot (featured image of this blog), and formless like the backdrop of existence; it has no beginning and no end. Well, that’s my version of keeping it simple. 🙂
Let’s stay connected,
Marc
