City Lights

Viewing things from a distance sometimes helps us to receive new insights, new perspectives. Only a small step back or to the side can already have a substantial impact.

Taking the time to stop, to breath, to simply observe, to let thoughts, conversations, struggles and insights sit in. To digest happenings, understand the learnings and clear the mind to offer space for new. Every happening is gained knowledge, however good or bad it might be.

After a discussion or disagreement, you can choose to hold grudges, or you can choose to absorb the necessary information and see obstacles, criticism or misunderstandings as points for growth and development.

As Sadhguru points out, your responsibility (ability to respond) towards any given situation is limitless. How you choose to react is entirely up to you.

Training and mindfulness are, of course, needed not to act impulsively and stop patterns of behaviour from the past.

Situations, people, smells, locations and other elements have the power to through us back to certain happenings of our memory triggering feelings that were once felt—sometimes activating thoughts and behaviours that no longer serve nor apply to the current state. Yet, we tend to fear and repeat them continuously, as if they were part of who we are.

A sight from far, movement, time to acknowledge, meditation, a step back, exchanging openly with others and taking an overall perspective of the whole, can help to break the cycles and give space for the creation of new response possibilities.

Situations from the past can only define you if you allow them to.

Take a step back, take a break, observe the cars of thoughts going through your mind (an analogy used by headspace), looking as they pass by from a distance.

Not identifying yourself as them, but rather seeing them as neutral machines driving by, just as you would when observing the lights of a city in movement.

Give yourself that break to step back and solely observe. What serves you, what doesn't, what should be adapted, what should be eliminated, what should be created. You can (re-)start at any given moment. Why not now?

(picture for Anchor & Bean)