Routine is important to create a stable living environment. But what happens when your routine becomes so, well, routine, that you find time is moving too quickly? Days, weeks, months blur by and suddenly it’s the new year again. You feel like you’ve been living on autopilot, just going through the motions but forgetting to take a step back, take a breath and look around. In my life, I have found that routine dampens at least two things: awareness and intimacy. I believe these things thrive when you bring a conscious spontaneity to your daily actions, letting your intuition and your heart guide you. If you feel as though your routine is making you stagnant, try letting your heart lead for a day. By this I mean, do only what is rooted in love for yourself and others, and that which fuels your personal growth. You might be surprised how easy it is!
Another thing that routine changes is the passage of time. Children experience time differently than adults. As kids, time seemed to stretch on and on. I’ve found that the reason that is, is because children are experiencing everything for the first time – things that are new to us grab our attention, they slow time down because we are absorbing the feeling of it on each level – mentally, emotionally and physically.
As adults, most experiences in our daily lives are ones that we’ve already experienced before, so our brains don’t pay as much attention. These get sorted into our subconscious as non-essential, and suddenly autopilot clicks on.
When was the last time that you experienced something new, as an adult? What did you feel? Did time slow down? Did your heart rate increase? Did your lungs expand to take in more air? This is your sympathetic nervous system kicking in. It’s job is to evaluate foreign experiences to see if a threat is imminent. Our brains are so primitive in this way, but that reaction is what has gotten us this far as a species. In a sense, this survival mechanism is what drives the ego – the drive for self-preservation. This is known in psychology as the “id”. Now, I’m no psychologist by any means, but if you look at the state of the world, so much of it is based from the ego. When the fulfilling the desires of the ego is prioritized over the wellbeing of others – humans, animals, and nature as a whole, is when we begin to contribute to an unbalanced world. What happens when many modern-day, first world societies have access to any and all resources necessary to fulfill the basic needs for survival, and humans still have the innate drive to fulfill the unsatisfied ego? That’s when we start filling our lives with material items, relationships and problems that don’t actually contribute to our lives in any way. We keep feeling around in the dark and grasping for anything that gives us temporary satisfaction, that fleeting feeling of wholeness. But I’ve got news for you, the empty feeling will always return. Always. It is only when you make the conscious choice to turn your awareness inward, toward what your soul needs, will you not only be able to nourish yourself and others from a place of balanced love on every level, but you will find out who you truly are.
I do feel that we, as humans, are evolving. It’s hard for us as individuals to see this, since we only get a certain amount of time on earth to live, learn and discover and explore. But change has been happening since the dawn of time, and can only be seen over long periods of time. Slowly and steadily, our brains are changing. But the survival part in us will always be there. We just need to learn how to control it in a healthy way, to not let it be the constant driver. If more people let love drive and put their ego in the trunk, I believe the world would improve drastically. I’ve seen many spiritual people claim that we must destroy the ego. However, the ego can never be destroyed as long as we remain in these physical vessels because it is such an engrained part of our brains. And that’s ok – we just have to learn how to befriend the ego, and put it on the back burner.
The take away from this, I suppose, is not to fear change. I change all of the time – daily even. Sometimes multiple times a day! Change is ok – it’s natural. It’s important, and necessary. But in order to enact true, balanced change that honors your highest self, you must go within and find what it is you must change, and why you need to change it. I feel like so many people are so comfortably stuck in their ways that they view change as a bad thing. It’s human nature to find comfort in the familiar, but if that comfort is creating more stagnancy than growth, that’s when you know its time to push yourself beyond your comfort zone and try something new.
The Ascension Garden 