“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.” Richard Rohr
Oh yes, I do agree with this!
Too many times has something glinted with promise, beckoning with a ‘new you!’ sales-pitch (no matter how well-intended) assuring that this [book/programme/practice] is the one – that a new, more balanced, more ‘well’ and somehow better way of living lies ahead. That with work, thinking, reading or just following the right steps this new way of living is within reach.
The reality is that living – full colour, getting-it-wrong-most-days, gloriously imperfect but keeping trucking-on-anyway – is a messy, fluid and multi-layered business and we can’t think ourselves to better versions of it.
I’ve learnt that my thinking must never be too set-apart, abstract, ‘venerated’ or idealistic that it steers me from the path of real-life. To live ourself into new mindsets we need to stay open to being wrong, to challenge and to change – to looking through the little door in our souls that leads to darkness and owning that those shadowy corners have a home in us too.
Living is done day-by-day, moment-by-moment, and it’s only through consciously cultivating our awareness of this that we might reach new, more peaceful, all-encompassing ways of thinking that may restore wholeness to us as individuals, to our communities, our world and our Mother Earth.
