Its a Brand New Day!

 

With every breath we actually recreate our experience of the world.  But to be genuinely open to all possible miraculous happenings, we need to leave behind any conscious or sub-conscious fears and beliefs that history can only repeat itself.

Yes, history does repeat itself.  The past will continue to haunt you in new ways until you learn what you need to.  The old wounds will continue to hurt you, until you address them and heal them completely.  The errors of your choices and actions will continue to result in the same consequences, until you choose differently.

But once you have acknowledged and assimilated your experience, its time to move on.  To ensure that your responses and expectations are realistic and open enough to allow for something completely new to emerge.

You change. Others change.  Society changes.  And yet, often unknowingly, we frequently operate from the past.  Have you ever noticed how we allow the memory of another time to influence our expectation of what is unfolding right now?

These are times of rapid change.  Allow yourself to see that.

Allow yourself to experience a Brand New Day…

Here’s how one of my own filters dramatically caught my attention a couple of years back:

A New Dawn

First published on FB on Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 1:24pm

I had the most disorienting experience of my life last morning.

I was staying at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai.

Though I reached very late in the night, I had been awake most of the night praying and meditating.  As I was to co-facilitate an important workshop in the morning, I knew I would have to wake up very early despite the lack of sleep.

When I got up at 6 am and looked outside my window, I was completely confused by what I saw.  The partial sea view revealed a gorgeous dawn with the sun beaming extra-ordinary colors over the sea waves.

I paused and looked again.

Maybe I was too sleepy. Let me look again.

And again.

And I simply couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing.

During the 35 years I lived in Mumbai, I was completely accustomed to evening walks on the beach, appreciating the sunsets. All those hundreds of sunsets over the Arabian sea had left such a deep impression on my mind, that I could not fathom how the sun was rising over the Arabian Sea!

I confess I fleetingly considered the possibility of having shifted dimensions or having lost my mind.

This dawn was totally unbelievable!

I was tempted to pull out a compass to check directions. This only shows how hard it was for me to believe what I was seeing with my own eyes. If I could see the sun rising… it had to be the East! Why did I need to verify this with a compass?

After a few minutes of this wonder, I finally came to my senses and realized that South Mumbai juts outward from the main coast and hence, yes, it was possible to see a sunrise over the Mumbai harbour.

On a personal note, I would like to believe this dramatic, fresh perspective is an indication of new beginnings for me 🙂

However, I consider this a powerful reminder from the universe… as to how much our thoughts, beliefs and behavior are conditioned by our past experience.

Even when reality is staring at you in the face, the filters of memories, expectations and beliefs can change the perception and conclusions to something totally different. So much so, that you reflexively question the obvious, and attempt justifications to fit what you see or experience – to what your mind insists on believing.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to start with a ‘blank canvas’ in every moment?

To be so attentive to the here and now that only flow and spontaneity grace the experience?