a collection of mini lessons
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.”
While I’m quietly [perhaps naively] optimistic that we are coming down from what seems to have been the peak of the pandemic in Australia, I feel as though it’s a good time to take a moment to reflect on the lessons learnt and experiences gained during this time. This challenge has forced us to live differently, it has greeted us with the opportunity to gain new perspective on life — and to face our future as if it is a new chapter, a new beginning. By slowing down from the day-to-day rush of life as we had known it, we have been urged to confront ourselves, face our inner world and address some of the existential questions we often rush past.
During this journey, I have had many little life lessons launched at me, some insights I had been grappling with before, but others that I definitely had not yet properly come to terms with until now.
These are some things that I have learnt so far — please, take what resonates with you but I also very much welcome different opinions and conversation.
1. Trust in a greater plan
Things might be difficult and hard to make sense of now. But these things are the weights that you are lifting, that are increasing your strength and preparing you for your future.
2. Trust in guidance
There are people that know more than you do about certain things.
3. Freedom from expectations
There is no certainty now, and there is no certainty ever. This time just highlights that — it is nothing new. Live in the moment.
4. Act immediately
You are fully in control of the timeline of your life — don’t put things off in the hope that one day suddenly a green light will appear. It won’t. You don’t need permission, the light is already green. Turn your ideas and thoughts into actions as soon as they appear. The process of acting immediately retrains the brain and builds momentum.
5. Making use of time
This period of free(-ish) time will not last forever. This is an opportunity to work on the things you haven’t had the time to do but have been wanting to. It will be over before you know it and you’ll be wanting it back — don’t just ‘kill time’ or wish it away.
6. What things are draining and waste time
Get away from your phone! You become more tired the more you procrastinate — don’t get trapped in the doom loop.
7. Patience
Not everything can happen immediately. Time is a gift that can be shared by waiting for others. When we are impatient and solely concerned on getting to our futures, we consequently miss out on our present.
8. Impermanence
This period of interruption is temporary. Life is a series of consecutive chapters with no backspace button. Embrace the good parts of this moment and take delight in the impermanence of the bad parts.
9. Simplicity
You don’t need as much as you think you did to be happy. Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
10. Appreciating finer beauty
There are pockets of nature that exists everywhere. There is no need to travel anywhere to find it, beauty is closer than you think. Look at the finer detail and keep your eyes open. Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations. Ask why — never settle for an acceptance of the way things are without question.
11. Accepting rules and restrictions
As long as we can understand why we have to follow certain rules, we should follow them. If not for our own immediate benefit, breaking rules will impact on us in the long term.
12. Finding freedom from within
When there are restrictions imposed in the outside world, make sure to not restrict your inside world. You have complete freedom over this place — you can’t decide what happens to you all the time but you can choose how you respond, and the way you feel.
“What you choose also chooses you.”
13. Exploring the internal reality
Your external reality is a reflection of your internal reality. You are not the victim of events happening to you, you have more power than that.
14. Accepting change
The harder it is now, the better it will feel afterwards. This is resistance training. Us humans are extremely adaptable.
“I am choosing to flow with the current of life rather than lying in a tide pool experiencing the same things again and again.”
15. Embracing change
Change and growth is necessary and great — it shows us that we are still in the process of evolution. Don’t spend your energy on fighting with the old; build on the new.
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance”
16. The importance of human touch and connection
The feeling of human touch reminds us of the interconnectedness of us all. We do not need touch to know this, but it provides the confirmation and huge relief in the certainty of it. A touch from another brings us back to ourselves.
17. Surrender
Surrender to yourself. Let yourself feel the things you have been steering away from. This is a time to process and move forward.
