It’s fall, my favorite time of year. Especially when I get to be up north to see all the colors. As we transition into this new season I am fully aware of the change that is happening around me with the season, the leaves, the air getting cooler and even the smell of the air is changing. With all this change I am reminded that change is all around us. Change isn’t for everyone but it happens to us all. Everything changes. I often hear “ I don’t like change.” That always baffles me because everything is changing all the time, it’s the only thing that is constant. I believe it’s how you to choose to respond to change that will help you accept change and flow with it rather than against it.
It’s been a year since we made a big change in our family’s life and lifestyle. We sold our 3000 sq. ft home and 90% of the stuff inside that home and moved, a lot. In the past year, we have moved 6 different times, to various states and a different country, obviously all short term but each move came with all the mundane details like, the packing, the stopping of mail and changing addresses, finding WiFi, trying new food, and making new friends. It has been a wonderful experience but not always full of rainbows and butterflies. Rather it has been a year of feeling all the feels that come with change.
As we boarded the plane to Bhutan, getting a call that the housing we had prepared for us upon arrival is no longer available. To connecting last minute with a dear college friend and staying with her family in their home in Singapore.
From a homeschool program that did not work from overseas to now thriving into a variety of homeschool tools but still wondering, daily, if I am doing right by my kids. Work contracts that fall through and contracts that come through.
But with all the good and bad I know it’s still the right decision for us and our family right now.
We just had another big change. We went from living in rental homes and airbnbs to now owning a new home on wheels. The #happybus! A renovated school bus that is roughly 300ish square feet. This one I’m still feeling all the feels with. After a year of downsizing, we are still overflowing out of the bus. Where do you put winter gear & travel gear along with my office and homeschooling stuff in a 35 foot long converted school bus? We are still figuring it out. Life is change and with each change, we just breathe with it and through it and try to flow with it because honestly if it wasn’t a #happybus it might have been a career change or a family change or something because life never stops changing. So we are choosing some of our changes and some just come and go like the seasons.
We are still figuring it out.
Life is change and when you feel it you are truly and deeply living.
One way I take care of myself during change is to be in my practice of mindfulness and I also love to listen to podcast and one of my favorites is 10% Happier with Dan Harris. He recently had a guest on his show, Scott Rogers who talked about mindfulness and embracing your adversary. He recently wrote a book called, ” The Elements of Mindfulness”. In this book he draws on the elements of nature; a tree, wind, clouds and the sun, to both learn what mindfulness is and use it with our connection to nature as an opportunity to “wake up” or to reinforce the cultivation of mindful awareness.
To begin this practice or begin a mindfulness practice of your own he suggests to start with a visualization of a tree and when you see a tree, adjust your posture.
When they feel the breeze you take 3 breaths.
When you see clouds, you have a thought and are aware of that thought as an awareness of the content of the mind. Then you smile and feel the feelings of when you smile. Then you frown and feel the feelings of when you frown.
Then you see a sun, this is your awareness,- warmth and compassion. Spread and share the warmth by bringing someone to mind and saying to them in your mind ” May you be happy” and send it to them. Much like a loving kindness practice.
Now that the sun is out come back to the tree and be aware of the body and have an awareness of the body practice. Or you can return to the wind and have an awareness of the breath and the practice continues or it can move to the clouds and you are aware of your thoughts and feelings. Or go back to the sun of just being aware.
He suggested that you begin to practice this way and then when you are out for a walk and you notice a tree you will stop and be aware of the body, maybe once a day.
