The Possibility of Beginning Again: Practice and Freedom

Change is an integral part of life. We progress and try to achieve, so why is it that change can be one of our biggest fears? Donna Negus explores the idea of how cultivating a ‘beginners’ mind’ can improve our feelings of wellbeing.

As I am writing this and as you are reading this, cells in our body are dying, dividing and renewing. It has been calculated that, on average, every seven years all the atoms in our body have come and gone and been replaced (Jon Kabat-Zinn). As I am writing this and as you are reading this, the tides ebb and flow, night becomes day, seeds fall and trees grow and our world is engaged in a constant cycle of degeneration and regeneration. Change is all around us but one of our biggest fears is change.

Being able to adapt to whatever life throws at us is essential to our wellbeing. Our constant need to ‘control’ is destructive to our health. Stress occurs when things are not how we would like them to be or when we are not how we think we should be. In the last year we have all had our lives effected (to some degree or another) by decisions from the government or by fear of something that could happen. This can cause us to suffer both mentally and physically. Put simply, suffering is exacerbated by seeing everything from our own personal perspective. What we have experienced, everyone experiences to some degree or another. What we have overcome, others have overcome as well. As objectivity is cultivated the deep understanding that everything is a process is cultivated. Within this understanding we can find relief in the knowledge that nothing lasts forever. Change can be and is positive. Change can be welcomed and we can lives to the fullest.

Yoga teaches us that change is inevitable. Every time we practice our body will be different. Why should it be the same? Each time I come to my mat I work with the idea that I am practicing for the first time. Each time I practice (and teach) I endeavour to locate the beginner’s mind. In this frame of mind, preconceived ideas, perceptions and beliefs can be left behind and we can practice with attention to what is felt ‘now.’ This allows the possibility of starting again as we are, and not as we think we should be because yesterday (or five minutes ago) this happened and that made me/us do that.

The second sutra in Patanjali teaches us yogas-citta-vritti-nirodah. Alistair Shearer translates this as ‘yoga is the settling of the mind into silence’. Surely in this ‘silence’ we are not worried about what has happened before, what might happen in the future or the myriad of other thoughts that intrude and affect our health and wellbeing? Imagine what it would be like if we were able to accept all the changes around us without intellectualising, judging and wishing it were different. This is the beginners’ mind; the mind in its purest form.

Patanjali’s (V1:12) goes on to teach us that freedom is found by practice (abhysa) and dispassion (vairagya). Dispassion can be found through objectivity and not being bound to seeing everything from our personal point of view. Alistair Shearer’s translation of V1:16:

And Supreme freedom is that complete liberation from the world of change that comes from knowing the unbounded self.

The ‘unbounded self’ is the enlightened ‘self’. This state allows is to not be caught and bound by the fear of change. I have no expectations of achieving enlightenment (!) but I do want to live the life I have in the healthiest way possible. This means accepting change as part of the process and journey. Change is embedded in the cycle of our planet, the stars, the universe and our body. The worldwide pandemic that has engulfed us all has taught us that control is indeed, an illusion. We are all affected by changing circumstances but our willingness to accept, adapt and thrive is governed by our mind set. When we begin each day as though it is our first there is an amazing amount of relief to be found in the possibility that we can always begin again.

Albert Einstein once said, there are two ways to live. You can live as if nothing is a miracle, or you can live as if everything is a miracle.

The choice is within us all.

Donna Negus October 2020

Feuerstein G (1989) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Kabat-Zinn J (2013) Full Catastrophe Living

Shearer A (1982) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali