Change of self, or change or scene? Stay right where you are!
Posted on 18th July 2022 at 08:55
I saw a quote on my meditation app the other day. I didn’t get the chance to write it down verbatim or even get who said it because the app has a feature where the quotation pops up when you open it, it then lingers for a few seconds, then fades serenely.
I don’t know why it does that. I suppose the app developers think they are being helpful, so that I don’t have to swipe it off the screen or tap on a button to move on – God forbid I should be so troubled. Whatever it is, it annoys the hell out of me. I know, I should be more accepting, but it winds me up… anyway, that wasn’t even what this is all about!
So, the quote (from someone) went something like this.
“Instead of a change of self, think about a change of scene.”
I thought about this and how it relates to mindfulness. If the practice is about stripping away our untrue edges and bringing us back to the core self, then we are encouraged to accept ourselves in that vein.
An attitude of mindfulness is self-compassion, and by practising this, we come to realise that underneath it all, we are OK fundamentally. Therefore, why do I need to change myself, or even have a change of scene?
I suppose the author could have been getting at the fact that we can break patterns of blockage or frustration by mixing things up, and this is in fact a sound concept. The right brain is stimulated when we get up and do something different, such as walking away from your desk to another corner of the office or home. It is almost like a re-boot, a freshener.
We trigger our creativity, and we get things done and remove blockages. They may have meant making bigger changes too, moving house, having a holiday?
But consider this. By staying with ourselves, being patient and kind, accepting our true core, and not the persona that has been made up by distortion of thought and fact, we will change ourselves by definition…and that changes our view on the world – in effect, a change of scene.
And you didn’t even have to leave your chair.
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