My parents had an old blender.
It had a green base, a glass jug and a black lid. I can still see it perfectly in my mind. Me standing in the kitchen, making a mango shake, one hand firmly pressing down on the lid.
I let it go once and the result was not pretty. Let’s just say the kitchen looked like an Indian Summer.
This morning I was blending a delicious blueberry, strawberry, spinach & almond milk smoothie and turned to get a spoon.
To my surprise, I couldn’t get far as I hadn’t realised that my hand was still on the lid! After all these years, my mind was still programmed from childhood.
Even though my blender is perfectly capable of blending without blowing its cool, I realised that for the past entire YEAR, I had been blending with one hand protecting it :O.
My default setting was “Watch it, it’s gonna BLOW!!!”.
If someone had been around me perhaps they would have questioned what I was doing and broken me out of this trance. For you see, it is just that – a trance.
When you do something automatically without thinking, you are in a trance and it happens to you more often than you realise.
Like with your mind. You get used to thinking a certain way for so long that it becomes second nature for you.
Habits, behaviours, thoughts, feelings, beliefs – all running on autopilot.
That’s why progress can sometimes be a challenge (not change, for change will happen but progress has to be created).
If you don’t even know what you’re doing or thinking sometimes, how can you do any different?
I recently concluded a 21 day Meditation & Yoga experiment where I meditated every day and did yoga 75% of the time. I was very aware of my thoughts and actions and consciously changed course thousands of times.
(In the last week of that practice, I wrote an eBook on procrastination, made huge strides in business planning and mapping out my next moves, got clear on branding this website and a whole lot more than I’ve done all YEAR!)
I used to think success was all about being the best, fastest and smartest.
I know now that success is about consciousness, consistency and choice.
What good is a life run on auto?
Wouldn’t you prefer to be the driver of your own life, steering and choosing what to think and do instead of being directed by structures that served you once but don’t anymore?
The best way I’ve found to do this is through mindfulness. For years I “shoulded” myself – I should do yoga, should meditate, should make more decisions.
No more. Life is about levels and phases. It wasn’t important then, it is now.
If you’re out there, wondering how to be different, how to create change and abundance in your life, start with this – First, ACCEPT where you are. Denial is unsexy!
Acknowledge that this is where you are and you either 1) want to stay here a bit longer or 2) don’t want to be here anymore.
If # 1, you’re golden. Carry on and make the most of this experience, I really mean it! Have no regrets by the time you’re done.
If you’re ready for progress, the first step is to start becoming aware of your desires, thoughts, states of emotion.
As you grow and expand in consciousness, business, love, positivity, success, changes start happening at a deeper level that you’ve ever experienced before.
Here’s what though – you don’t have to start off that way. It’s just fine to get going with skin deep, then keep digging in little by little. Start becoming aware and focusing on what you want, bit by bit.
Little actions make for big changes.
If you visualise something you want or speak positive affirmations for 5 minutes a day over a month, you’ll make FAR greater headway than doing it for 150 minutes one day.
Build that muscle, one move at a time!
Sometimes it just blows my mind to think that if all we did was one thing daily to achieve our goals, we’d get there 99% of the time. Imagine that, huh?
In that spirit, the next step in the Blender Saga will involve me very bravely removing my hand and smiling as I see how perfectly my blender works. A few days of doing this and the new habit will become my default setting.
Just like the 21 days of guided meditation has extended into another 21, post which I have a sweet feeling it will be around for a while.
I’d love to hear from you! Where in your life are you running on default? Do you think that change CAN happen in an instant or does it only feel like that because you’ve been slowly leading up to it? I’m curious to know what you think. Thanks in advance for playing!
I like your yoga perspective! “Be where you’re at”
Change is inevitable, progress is created. Conscience choice brought
forth though awareness of ” desires, thoughts and state of emotion”
Love it Tia
Thank you!!
I think I first learned that (change will happen, progress is created) from the great Tony Robbins. For someone who couldn’t stand him at first, I sure have learned lot from him 😉
I’m fascinated at how our beliefs and early experiences condition us and equally fascinated by how we can change them!
Thanks for the comment Lynne!
Tia,
I must share – back in the middle of summer – I, too, started meditating regularly. Regularly…except I was only sporadically regular (hmm…that 150 minute idea…not so good…). And then, by chance, I happened to connect with someone who teaches meditation. I left our time together both with a renewed sense of accomplishing this, and with the real belief that it wasn’t how long I spent each day in meditation – it was that I did this consistently, day after day. Since then, I have done this about 95% of the time – and it’s become a time that is very meaningful to me. And…it’s become a new habit…
So for me, the old habit was my “morning routine”, and making a conscious effort to change that – by adding meditation in. Now that I have, it’s something that is now part of the habit…
It’s good to read this today, and to start thinking about other areas in my life where I am ready to progress…
I wish I’d listened to my dad when he said the same things to me as a kid! Haha. Nah, it’s all good. We all learn in our own time and in our own ways 🙂
You bring up another great point – it’s now hot long you spend in doing something but how often. Small consistent steps cover more ground than sporadic giant leaps.
Not that I’m against big giant leaps, heck no, those are very important and pretty awesome for how much ground they cover. It’s just that leaping EVERY day is bound to give you a sprain so reserve those for jumping over chasms, and walk or run till you get there.
I love the “trance” image that you so visually explain here. I could immediately identify a dozen things I do like your hand on the blender. And as with your last post, this one came at a perfect time to remind me of something I already know: even a tiny bit of movement creates huge energetic shifts.
Years and years ago, I remember hearing Barabara Sher speak about resistance and how we have to break things down to the smallest increments. I used to think my increments were small–for instance, I’d decide to start an exercise program at 15 minutes a day–that was my small increment. And I’d wonder why I couldn’t get going. And there was Sher saying that 1 minute is a small increment.
As a writer, I was always pushing to churn out pages and I’d run into a block. Sher said that some days a small action could be picking up your manuscript and setting it back down again, or turning the computer on and writing one word.
Oh this was such a blissful breakthrough–permission to be a toddler! With that permission, I eventually progressed to a 40 page a day writing pace when I’m working on a book, and it was never a struggle. I just toddled into it a little bit at a time.
But lately, I’d forgotten that as I’m creating a new website and business. So as last time, THANK YOU for the timely reminder. Your story and wisdom hit home. 🙂
I know, right!!??! The one minute increment – holy hallelujah! PERMISSION to be eentsy meensty small!
Thing is – it’s constant. Just when we think we’ve got it all figured out, we start spinning again and have to remind ourselves time and again. Thank goodness for mirrors and flash cards and whiteboards 😀
A great post I read abt taking it slow http://menwithpens.ca/take-it-slow gave me so much peace thinking about how I sometimes rush the process.
Timely for you AND for me my friend!
Hey Tia…
When I am ‘in the vortex’ I eat well and honor my body. When I become unconscious I COMPLETELY FORGET that I want to honor my body!! It’s like, hey, how did that brownie get in my mouth????????????
Hmmmm
L 😉
HEY!! Who says brownies = not honouring your body!? I take umbrage! Brownies are GOOD for you. Chocolate = iron. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
ps: soooo awesome to have met you at GVU, thanks for checking out my blog!
Hi Tia,
Too funny about the blender. I bought a really nice blender to make my smoothies. It worked o.k. for awhile, then on “high” it started to loosen from its base and I had to start keeping my hand on it to keep the entire thing from spinning off, never mind the top. (Need to see if it’s been recalled. Thx for the reminder.)
Sometimes I find myself driving in a direction I don’t want to be going because I’m on autopilot.
Am with you on being conscious enough to be in the moment. I hiked up Mt. Cadillac at Acadia National Park last week and had to stay in the moment because the trail down was all rocks and quite steep in places. If I drifted, I might twist an ankle.
Interesting that we have to “focus” to be conscious. You’d think it would take more work to be unconscious. Let me take that semi-back. We learn to be unconscious because it makes for a better consumer …
thx. G.
Hey Julie (why do I keep calling you that!?), no one said it was an easy practice and yet, that’s all it is – practice.
Actually, doesn’t it seem that being unconscious is easier? Cos then we have to do – nothing. Auto pilot.
Why is it that the “good” things are harder to do and make happen than the supposedly “bad” things? I’m thinking of things like exercise vs sugar frenzies. Is it a cosmic super plan to test us to our limits and HE’s up there having a giggle fest at our expense?
Dang, I don’t know whether to be mad about this or laugh. Oh too late, already laughing at the irony .. ha.ha. ha.
Hey Tia!
1) your blender story made me laugh out loud because I could image the scene you described very graphically 😉 – those are the times where you think ‘no, you just didn’t…’…
2) it is an excellent example of how we are subconsciously or semi-consciously surrounded by our routines like a fish surrounded by water. As long as we stay under the surface, all is good but same-old as every day. Sometimes we forget that there is a totally different world above the water surface *and* that we can breathe in water and air figuratively speaking. So I’m all for taking a breath of fresh air after all the water breathing ^^.
Erikkkkkk!! Welcome back to the InterWebs!
Oh yes I just did. My life is like a comedy show with elements of drama and intrigue at times.
Love the metaphor of the fish swimming in the same water. Dolphins and whales have the best of both worlds – water when they want, air when they need. Us humans and fish need to get our game up.
Ok now I’m just being random. How very Scanner like of us to leave our series midway ay? Can’t wait to get back to it soon! Missed ya, thanks for popping by.
I have to admit that I have never thought much before about those mindless things we do just because we’ve been trained to do them. Kind of like driving somewhere and then wondering how you got there because you just show up.
It’s interesting because it made me wonder just how aware I really want to be about everything, and yet how aware I’d like to be about other things. For instance, I don’t know that I want to be all that aware of a 6-hour drive someplace, yet I’d like to be more aware of each bite of a piece of cake or spoonful of ice cream. That might convince me to eat less because now I’m thoroughly enjoying every morsel.
Now my head hurts! 🙂
Hey Mitch, I reckon if we decided how we wanted life to be, then worked on setting up habits and thought processes in place, then let THOSE become habitual, wldn’t it make life so much easier :D?
I hope that ice cream helped your headache away!
Hi Tia,
I’m so glad I found your blog. I love how you’re keeping it real! 🙂 I am a firm believer in the ebb and flow of life. If we don’t resist the tides, everything happens beautifully – and in its own time.
Blessings to you. 🙂
Thanks Mia, and Welcome! Big reminder there – don’t resist the tides. Thanks for that. I’m loving the title of your last post so much I’m off to check it out. Come back soon!
Ok I’m back – first off, HOW DARN GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, STUNNING are YOU!!?!? The energy and joy popping out of your picture, wow!! You’ve got to go get a gravatar at http://en.gravatar.com/ and share your loveliness with the world, the grumpy yellow man does nothing for your sparkle 🙂
Thanks for “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy” Love Rumi! ANother one of my faves is “Barn’s burned down. Now I can see the Moon” by Masahide.
What a great post- I read it three times. There are so many gems in it~ One is consciously creating good habits until they become automatic. I am reminded of a saying; ‘repetition is the Mother of skill’. Thank you, Tia.
That was my big lesson – to be aware of the things I do and say out of habit and be more conscious in my actions 🙂 glad you liked it Chas!