Meditation on Changing Our Thinking to Better Our Being

I always run late, in that at best I’m on time, but typically I’m a couple minutes … ish late.  That’s just how I am … or is it?  I certainly have a predisposition to pack in as much goodness as possible and am optimistic as to how long things will take, both of which contribute to my being behind schedule.  That said, the way I have been, and am, doesn’t need to determine who I will be.  Habit patterns aren’t made of diamond, they can be altered or broken.

In yogic philosophy samskaras are mental grooves.  Positive, negative, or in between, these ways we typically think and behave are ruts we get stuck in, wherein we often think we’re destined to stay.  You know how once we get settled in our adulthood, we have this tendency to say “that’s just how I am” (in a grumpy old voice)?  I’d basically gotten to that point with my lateness, until in a podcast conversation between comedian Pete Holmes and singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson, they said that’s B.S. and a copout!

This brings me to neuroplasticity and repentance.  Neuroplasticity is the fancy term that captures how our brains are like silly putty on steroids in their mind-blowing ability to reshape, rewire, remap, relearn, and so on.  Along those lines, Jesus invites each and every one of us to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near, which did NOT originally mean what it usually does today.  Instead, the Christ was literally saying “change your minds” from negativity, bad habits, shaming, judgmental, and other such thinking. to positivity, gratitude, joy, kindness, and compassion, because Big Love is already in us and all around us.  With this in mind, today I invite us to practice changing our thinking to better our being, because none of us is defined by or condemned to how we typically think and behave.