The First Crack in the Mould.

The First Crack in the Mould.

What do you need to do, what is required of you in order to change the pattern of your existence?

To make more evolved lifestyle decisions rather than following the norm and staying stuck in a rut, to improve health, or to enhance life in any way things must change, but many of us are following a routine and experience comfort through repetition.

My restrictive mould? I’m a list maker, box ticker, planner, organiser, achiever. I place limits on myself in order that more can be achieved in a week. I am inclined to want to achieve the most, be the best and reach new heady heights, but my clients, friends and teachers have taught me so much about these potentially destructive behaviour patterns, my yoga practice has taught me that having desire and needing to achieve can result only in more tightness and eventually injury (which it took me nearly 18 months to fully recover from in my knees), my husband has taught me that actually I’m ok just as I am, and our daughter has taught me that life is bigger than your latest achievement.

According to Oxford Dictionaries, ‘breaking the mould’ allows us to “put an end to a restrictive pattern of events or behaviour by doing things in a markedly different way”. I believe the key word here is ‘restrictive’, in that having a set pattern or series of learned habits within which you lead your life in the literal sense restricts you and limits your potential for not only achievement but in the eternal human search for joy and happiness, less pain, greater health and wellbeing.

So why am I writing this? From the need to escape my own ‘samskara’, my self-created, inhibiting, restrictive mould in order to truly live my life, to live a more balanced existence and to help my family, clients and others to envisage and create their own improved realities.

‘Samskara’ is a Sanskrit term that relates to repetitive patterns or habits of the mind and body, subconscious or conscious, which are strengthened by constant repetition and make up our conditioned behaviours and conditioned existence. The concept of samskara was once explained to me by a much-loved teacher using the metaphor of a leather gardening glove that after many years of garden labour in dirty and damp conditions had become hardened to the shape of your hand. The resultant work that is needed is to slowly soften the glove, add oil & warmth, and to massage it in ways that it is not used to in order to break the mould and allow the glove to once again be malleable and able to follow a whole new pattern of use, in order to form new habits.

Note: I will use this term samskara henceforth (and ironically within my own samskara or conditioning) as a demonstrative tool towards breaking patterns of existence

Another reason for writing this: I am terrified of blogging and of putting my thoughts ‘out there’ in the critical public domain. But here we are – let this be the first crack in my current mould.

Rowena x

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