A Conscious Choice Never Leads to Regret
Four Weeks to Let Your Light Grow
(PORTUGUÊS) (NEDERLANDS)
Last week, I wrote about calmness and how we can ensure that our mind and body become and remain calm. Although it might sound as though you’re no longer allowed to jump for joy or cry your heart out in sadness, that’s not the case. Of course, you can do whatever you want. Lose yourself in love and other drama, dance all night, run through the mountains for hours, or even get drunk or stoned. All of this falls under free choice and free will.
What I’m talking about is being aware of all this. For instance, when you’ve had a stressful, busy, exciting, or restless day, you might unconsciously fill your head and evening with food, alcohol, or other substances. It seems to bring calmness, allowing you to take a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief. Wonderful. But what if you did it consciously? After such a day, you pause for a moment, reflect on everything that happened, and calmly decide whether to indulge in a haze of food, alcohol, or substances or to restore your calmness through the guidance of your own awareness. That’s what I’m talking about.
An interesting side effect of consciously choosing something you know won’t benefit you physically or mentally in the long run is that you enjoy it without regret afterward because it was your choice, and you weren’t a victim of circumstances.
Becoming aware of all the underlying reasons for your actions—whether speaking, thinking, or acting—is the greatest gift you can give yourself and the only way forward.
What lies behind you no longer exists, and what lies ahead doesn’t yet exist. Only this moment exists. It can be a clean slate, at any moment. The choice is yours.
Sunday marks the beginning of December and the start of Advent, when the first of four candles is lit. It’s a special month for many, for all kinds of reasons. How wonderful would it be if we could live this month consciously, maintaining calmness by letting all the marketing campaigns, big and small, pass us by and instead focusing on the light we carry within us, magnifying it so that not only we but others too are no longer in the dark.
That’s what we’re going to do in the coming Sundays: week by week, we’ll light our inner candles and practice strengthening the light energy we brought in during the summer so that we can truly become a beacon of light. For me, that’s what December is all about.
Yoga & More on Sunday, December 1, 2024 at 10:00 h at the Bombeiros in Santo António das Areias
You are welcome even if you never sat on a yogamat.
Here at Yoga & More, I write for the participants of my yoga and awareness classes. They are usually invitations to another class, a reflection, an idea. Whatever it is, it always has to do with the awareness that thinking, body and emotions are your tools with which you can live an enjoyable life. In fact, it is usually the other way round. We have no idea why we do, say or feel something. If you don't live near me, you can just read along. Feel especially welcome.