Tune into transitions: Day 3: Mindfulness Challenge

Day 3: TUNE INTO TRANSITIONS

Change is the only constant, we are often fond of repeating. And yet we barely grasp the extent of change that our lives are subject to. We see the big changes, the new job, the college admission, the wedding, the baby, the death of a dear one, but the little changes barely register. They elude us completely.

There are so many minor changes that take place each day. Literally thousands and thousands.

The physical movements that we undertake, and not just the long journeys, but the short hops around the house, outside on the street.

Each person we interact with affords us the possibility of change.

Each different task we undertake helps us see something different.

The truth is that each micro-transition and mini-change is adding and altering the sum total of our lives.

Change affords us a new vantage point, a new frame of reference. Students of photography often find themselves viewing their surroundings using a particular tactic. Holding up their forefingers and thumbs perpendicularly to form two Ls facing each other, they find themselves seeing that frame with new eyes. Seeing it completely. Unencumbered by all that which lies around it.

It is a tactic that forces you to see and draw attention to one particular frame for a while. Let the rest of the world be temporarily forgotten. That’s the power of cinema for you.

These students have learned that what you look at is what you get. The understanding is their first step towards attaining mastery in their craft. They learn that as these frames of reference shift around, and within, us, it pays to be aware of them, actively so.

An acquaintance who meets me after months might tell me that my cheeks have sunk in or that I am taller/plumper/thinner than I was when we last met, while I who have seen myself in my full-length mirror many times each day during that period continue to see myself as I have always been.

That is why it is important to be keenly aware of all those changes and of the power they wield over us.

Every moment comes to us bearing within it the seed of something new, unexpected, something that could radically transform what has been.

Are we ready to see it and acknowledge the difference it makes in our lives?