My husband Sam said something like this to me the other day:

“You change when the pain of staying the same is more than the pain of changing.”

OOOOF.

The man has never read Anaïs Nin, so I know that what he said must be coming close to some universal truth.

You know those Anaïs Nin lines right?

“And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

(I remember writing those lines down in my journal, by the way, as a VERY precocious 8 or 9 year old 🙃.)

Two sides of the same coin. And both phrases hold at least two sub-truths in them:

1. Changing is NOT easy. It’s painful and risky. It’s challlllenging. It’s disruptive not only to you, but often to the people around you (and closest to you, and often they … don’t like your change! or it, at least, takes some getting used to). And all of this is because…

2. Change disrupts the status quo. And the status quo has MOMENTUM. It is powerful and sticky and sometimes almost impossible to move out from under.

But here you are.

Nearly 40 days after our journey together began.

No matter “how it went” — good, bad, right, wrong — meditation practice itself reminds us to not tell the story about the thing. To not always judge / jump / react / fix / solve. Just simply notice.

Notice the fact that you have had a relationship with practice for nearly 40 days.

It’s not that the pain or risk of change is over. (That’s the thing about practice. It’s not a one-and-done-check-the-box-kind-of-thing — this practice is d a i l y ).

But now… now!

Momentum is in your favor.

You’re already in the flow of practice.

You can choose to do what you want on Day 41.

But Anaïs and I (& maybe even Sam), we’d all agree: KEEP BLOSSOMING. Keep changing. It’s worth it.

xo Cath

Meditation: Choose from one below. Your practice. Your choice.

Reflection: The pain of changing v. the pain of staying the same. The risk it takes to blossom. What does this bring up for you?