Everything around you starts to metamorphosise into something else, from the trees and plants to birds and insects. Everything is transforming. Including you.

- published by InTheLoop in 2016

        This topic has been near and dear to my heart since I came back from another amazing trip in NYC in March. Being able to experience the arrival of Spring after a harsh, long and brutal New York winter was a relief for everyone. The relief was short-lived though, as there was another round of dumping of heavy wet snow on the first day of Spring! Having arrived from Singapore two weeks before, this was not only fun and refreshing for me but the cold and dry weather was actually the reason why I travelled all the way to NYC again. I wanted to practice yoga and pilates in a different climate and environment, eating healthy and seasonal organic foods on a daily basis, interacting with different cultures of people around me and walking on roads less travelled. I was excited again to meet the teachers and people who have made profound impacts on my own teaching and development as an individual and wondered what new experiences I could have again with them.

       

        I realised upon my return how readily I have been embracing change- any kind of change into my life. My body and mind have been responding to small opportunities to move out of my comfort zone, to break the mould and shake up any routine that I have built mechanically into my life. And I first noticed it in my daily yoga and pilates practice. I started to become aware that each time I do an asana or a pilates exercise, my breathing was different, my legs felt different and the sensations in my body were different. More importantly, I was also trying not reverse these changes in order to feel the same as before. I was excitedly curious and opened about the unfamiliar and was having more fun than I can remember about exploring new possibilities with the same poses. I felt a new form of courage inside me. I realised that even before I went to NYC this March, I was already beginning to shake things up a little for myself.

The change in seasons, something which we do not get to experience here in Singapore, creates an impact on the body and mind in both subtle and noticeable ways. As the snow starts to melt and the soil starts to soften with moisture and the sun radiates its magnificence on everything that it touches, one can't help but witness quite literally the Laws of Change; to Create and Re-Create. Everything around you starts to metamorphosise into something else, from the trees and plants to birds and insects. Everything is transforming. Including you.

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        Not everyone notices changes and accepts going through them. An acute self-awareness and courage is generally required to implement any kind of change. For this involves large amounts of energy and effort to break a pattern- A pattern of moving, a pattern of thinking or a pattern of reacting. Change involves willpower and discipline, to be a risk-taker, to challenge oneself and step out of your comfort zone. This can be scary. It is a vulnerable feeling- to feel the unknown and the uncertainty of all the “what ifs”. Because of this reason, we often feel “stuck” in our current situation. We keep going back to the predictable zones, thinking that we are safe there. So we practice the same way over and over again, think the same habitual thoughts and move the same way and the repetitive patterns continue. Until we create new ones for ourselves.

 

        For how do we know that there are no other safe zones? Have we even tried to extend our boundaries ever so slightly to explore new ways that could help us see and recognise our gifts a little more clearly? Is the current mould still working for you? Is the current mould really that unbreakable? Instead of asking “why can’t I”, try asking “how can I?” “How” creates room for possibility and for a process of enquiry to take place.

 

        So when will the time to change come, if even in just one small way?

 

        The more we allow change to take place in our lives, the more tools we have in our back-pockets to adapt and cope in the ever-changing world, so that when life throws curve balls at us, we have the ability and option to catch them, dodge them or throw them back.

 

        Life does not accommodate you; it shatters you. Every seed destroys its container, or else there would be no fruition.

 

        Change is part of the process of Being and Becoming. However it can only perform its magic and manifests into its true nature for you when you are marching into unchartered territory, at your most unguarded and most defenseless.

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