Is it possible to start with a clean slate? In any case, it is impossible not to live a new life. Judge for yourself: our epidermis renews every 2-3 weeks, our epithelium – 3-5 days, and blood – 12 days.
Nowadays a lot of people are concerned about the lungs. The cell surface, which interacts with everything we inhale, renew every 2-3 weeks, alveoli – every 12 months. Various organs renew in a different period of time. Your liver renews every 150 days while your heart 2 or 3 times in your life.
Nevertheless, the logic is straightforward. Changes happen all the time. We simply never notice them. A cyclist has to pedal faster so that they stay in an upright position. Oddly enough, we change, yet we stay the same.
In any case, we perceive it as the ‘same’. Although, it might not be true. The thing is, we can feel like something is new to us in different ways.
Two ways to feel something new
The first approach is to switch the direction you are used to taking. Everybody knows the word ‘downshifting’, so popular the phenomenon has become. Basically, it implies quitting your job alongside with all your attempts to become successful. The point is to live a life for the sake of living and achieve deep spirituality.
Some people even move to India or Thailand, which means they are literally in a new country. This approach can resolve a family crisis or a relationship one. Someone leaves and relationships fail.
However, this approach is not the only one, there is a second. You can actually perceive the place you are in right now differently. By the way, it is possible to do the same thing with yourself. Let’s face it, we don’t really notice ourselves in our everyday lives. We think we already know enough about ourselves and our lives.
Anyway, before taking a particular path, it would be worth finding out where we are right now and how we feel. It is not such a difficult thing to do. All we need is to pay attention to what is around you and raise your awareness.
All your familiar and ordinary things, including ourselves, can be seen from different perspectives. There is a Buddhist way to do that: just close your eyes and listen.
Listen
There are way more sounds than we think. For starters, just try to listen to your heartbeat. We can usually hear it when we take the stairs of a five-floor walk-up. That is when we notice it. However, it has been beating since the 21st day of our existence on Earth when we are still in our mother’s womb.
Of course, we don’t remember that, but try getting back to that sound that reminds us of our lives. The next step is breathing. Our chest expands when we breathe in and we can even hear the sound our clothes make.
Now let’s add the outside sounds. What can you hear out of your window? Cars passing by, the voices of people, or a phone ringing? What about your neighbors? Are they quiet or noisy, do they have their TV on, or maybe they have a dog and you can hear it walking upstairs?
We usually hear only one or two sounds even when we try to focus on what is around us. Nevertheless, if we practice and challenge ourselves from time to time, we can hear even five or ten sounds from different sources. This is when we find out that we are right in the middle of an orchestra.
Surprise yourself
We were talking about one source of impression – hearing. We have taste, smell, touch, and a sense of direction. If we pay attention to everything we hear we are surprised at different things. We become just like children who are interested in why the wind blows and the fact that it blows itself.
Adults can be rarely surprised, or even if they are it is usually because of some kind of extraordinary events, or emergency situations like a plane crash or a terrorist attack. However, we weren’t on that crashed plane, right? So, nothing surprising happens in our lives.
When we divert our attention to the world, it becomes similar to that of when we were little. The world changes every second and the more time we spare for the universe, the more we discover.
The lockdown situation is quite beneficial. We can’t go anywhere and explore unknown countries. We either die from boredom or take interest in our lives.
