I can talk for an hour about the challenges of change. In our conversation, we might admit that change is often difficult and scary -- although sometimes exhilarating and necessary.
But anything that I say will not give you the full experience of change. So, let's have an experience that will allow you to experience change that will lead to understanding yourself and an idea much more deeply than I can ever explain.
First, let’s put our hands on our laps. Then give attention to our hands on our laps. Without looking, interlace the fingers on your right hand with the fingers on your left hand.
Good. Now take a moment to glance at your hands and notice how your hands look, how your fingers are laced and where your thumbs are placed.
Notice if your right thumb is placed over your left thumb – or vice versa. It’s OK – whatever way your thumbs have intersected is just fine. We just want to notice what happens and we want to notice how this feels.
Now, slowly and with awareness, lift the thumb that’s on the top. Move your other thumb to allow the top thumb to go underneath and then put the remaining thumb on top.
Now, let’s take a moment to notice what your experience is like.
Odd? Strange? Different? Uncomfortable? Awkward? Or something else?
This is an experience – admittedly, a very simple experience – about change. Notice that one way is not right and the other way is not wrong. They are just different. And in just a few minutes you have an experience about change that goes much more deeply into your being than I could ever explain, even if I talked about change for the next 100 days.
Now, we also want to notice what you DO with the experience. Do you decide, without thinking very hard, that the second way is much too difficult and that you want to quickly return to the old comfortable way?
Do you notice that you are intrigued by the difference of the two experiences and start overlapping your thumbs in various configurations to learn more about how this feels?
Are you able to consider that change involves some level of discomfort and are you willing to figure out how to tolerate the discomfort while you are approaching or in the midst of change?
Notice that the experience comes first. Once we have the experience, we can begin to find the context about how the experience fits in our lives.
