#6 Everything is complex, but don’t lose heart.
The overwhelm with change happens when we try to explain or force every complexity into a complicated system that we can control. However, that’s not the only way to handle complexity.
We respond to complexity not with more complexity but with a new level of simplicity.
Two examples:
Take breathing. The phenomenon is as complex as it gets, conscious and unconscious, biological and geological, physical and spiritual. Breathing is our most direct and most fragile link with life.
Or friendship. Our neural universes are colliding. It’s not only about the two stories, but hundreds of stories they are a part of. What can be more intricate than being a great friend?
For breathing and friendship, we only have to show up.
Change is like that.
It does not have to be complicated.
Why this matters: Our made-up complication of everything paralyzes and isolates us. Without simplicity, there’s no action, and without action, there’s no flow. In the most complex matters that matter the most to us, a new level of simplicity is the only way anywhere.
#7 “What is mine to do now?”
Change does become easier and easier with mindful and narrative practices. However, when you have something new right in front of you that has to change, change is not easy.
When I say that change is simple, I mean that if you pay attention, you’ll realize you already know what this change is asking of you.
I wish changing myself was complicated. So I can analyze it, procrastinate, break it down into steps, prepare for it, read more about it, and … not respond.
We know precisely what is happening. Embedded in our core intelligence, we know exactly what we need to do. Our first inner step to anything is as clear as the clear sky. (And if the sky is cloudy, it won’t be for too long.) If we ask and listen, life will tell us. We know that everything is more uncomplicated than we make it to be.
The grace of change is available here and now. It has been saving our lives since the first one-cell organism learned to survive and thrive in the primordial water.
To try: Change is a conscious encounter with the moment moving through us and with what it asks of us. Use this question: “What is mine to do now?”
#8 Have a conversation you don’t want to have.
Are you excited to change?
Don’t be.
There’s a conversation you don’t want to have. There’s a question you don’t want to ask. And there’s the frontier that you don’t want to roam. But you need to. There’s always plenty of excitement and play on this journey, but for now, notice your beautiful reluctance. Experience it fully. When you are reluctant, you are real and ready.
#9 Quote: “I am not done with my changes.”
Feel free to share this graphic:
#10 Listen to the hummingbird whose wings you cannot see.
Here’s to Leonard Cohen and the last words of the last song on his last album:
Listen to the mind of God
Which doesn't need to be
Listen to the mind of God
Don't listen to me
Listen to the hummingbird
Whose wings you cannot see
Listen to the hummingbird
Don't listen to me
(Listen to the Hummingbird by Leonard Cohen)
#11 Have you noticed the ease?
You have been breathing through this newsletter.
And changing too!
What is one thing you have learned from this issue of the HummingWord? Hit reply, let me know, and I may share your reply. Thank you.
I definitely overcomplicate🤭