No! We Don’t Have to Change our Lives
Shwetha Sivaraman
Self Mastery Coach (ICF-PCC) | Enabling Busy Professionals to Thrive Consciously with Simple and Sustainable Solutions | Ex-Corporate Banker | Intentional Living Advocate | Author | Podcaster
We’ve all reached a point in our lives where we feel like every aspect of our lives needs a rehaul. But that’s easier said than done.
In a bid to rehaul, we get stuck in a loop of wanting, failing, shaming, and repeating the cycle till our self-worth and trust in ourselves are completely eroded. We get trapped in a vicious cycle with no outs or wins.
What can we do instead?
Let me tell you a Zen parable first. Once, a troubled man went to visit a Zen master.
"I need help," he said. "I’m struggling with too many problems and challenges in my life. I feel like I need to change everything."
The wise master handed him a spoon filled with water. "Walk around the temple without spilling a drop," he instructed.
Carefully, the man walked around, watching the spoon intently to keep the water from spilling. When he returned, the master asked: "What did you notice?"
"Nothing else," the man replied. "I was focused only on the spoon."
The master smiled. "Life is like this. When you focus on what is truly important, your perspective shifts. The problems and challenges fade into the background."
The man's face lit up with newfound clarity. He realised his struggles stemmed not from the need to change his entire life but from how he approached it.
领英推荐
Like this troubled man, we also need to realise that we don’t need to change our entire lives. We just need to refresh our perspectives and approach the same situations with conscious awareness.
Instead of looking at changing your life, approach everything you do with awareness. Notice
The activities we do and the decisions we make might still be the same but conscious awareness ensures that we accept why we do or decide a certain way, reducing the unnecessary inner friction.
#MERAKLISTIP for the week:
Don’t try in vain to change your life, change how you approach it instead.
How does self-awareness help you navigate the ups and downs of life?
#BeingMeraklis #ThriveConsciously #SelfAwareness #IntentionalLiving
Empathy consultant and facilitator | Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Trainer | Culture Change Consultant | I help teams work together more effectively with skills for empathic communication & conflict resolution
7 个月I love this reminder. Truth is, changing our lives can look transformative on the surface and give us a sense of "doing" something. And my experience is that unless I change within, it'll bring me back to the same challenges, same issues that prompted me to change in the first place. Too bad slow, subtle changes can look so unglamorous ;-)