Discovering the Obvious
A few days ago, I was perusing the internet and came upon a video showing the colors of the rainbow with a graphic ROY G BIV. As a former elementary school teacher, I was familiar with the acronym to help remember the order of the colors, red, orange yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. All of a sudden, it dawned on me, these are the same colors of the Chakras (hand slap to the face) duh! Why had I never connected the two after all these years of teaching and yoga is dumbfounding! How many hours had I stared at print outs, pictures, and art depicting the chakras and never made the connection? How many times had I taught ROY G BIV to kids and colored rainbows? But that is how life goes, you walk around doing your thing and you miss the obvious in front of your face.
Not to say that I haven’t had similar experiences in other areas of my life. Take the refrigerator, looking for that elusive jar of pickles or that one container of *fill in the blank* only to discover it was right in front of my face. Usually it requires the “fresh eyes” of someone else to help me “find” the missing item because I am temporarily blind to what is in front of me.
This made me wonder, what else am I blind to in my life? I work hard practicing awareness, observing my thoughts, and being present but it is clear to me now, no matter how observant, thoughtful, or aware I think I am, there are definitely some blind spots.
There is a concept in Zen Buddhism called Beginner’s Mind. The idea of beginner’s mind is to approach everything as if it is new to you. The idea is that if you approach everything as a beginner would, you would see beyond your bias and opinions and see things from a fresh view point, aka “fresh eyes”. Everything you do can be enlivened by this approach of Beginner’s Mind. Children are a great example of beginner’s mind. Everything in the world is new to them. They squeal with delight over simple things. The awe and wonder of children is a perfect example of beginner’s mind in action. As adults, we get into habits of going through the motions of our day only to realize we were mentally checked out not fully present. This lack of presence can leave you feeling disenfranchised from your own life.
Just like the practice of coming back to your breath in yoga or meditation, this journey of being present is a continual practice of bringing your self back, over and over again, to the present moment or even to beginner’s mind. It does not matter what you do or how long you have done it, everyone can use a dose of beginner’s mind to reinvigorate their lives.
So, now as I begin anew, applying beginner’s mind to my life, I am hopeful that my blind spots will come more into view. Who knows maybe I will discover something truly amazing staring me right in the face!
Here’s to a fresh start!
Kirsten
The obvious theme for this week’s Yoga Nidra is Beginner’s Mind. If you are interested in the journey inward, join me Wednesday evening for Yoga Nidra.
Email me @ kirstengoliver@gmail.com or go to www.calmwavewellness.com for more information.
