Begin Again

A while back I sat on a zoom call with one of my teachers, a powerful masculine energetic being. It came time for me to ask my question. I said – so, I’ve been through a long period of contraction, of difficulties, of closing down. Now – I am here, I am opening again. I imagine the advice you will give me will be “Begin Again”, but I wanted to ask you – what advice you would give me?

He paused for a moment, then smiled warmly and deeply at me, and said – “Begin Again”.

Everything you need to cultivate real peace is wrapped up in this practice of Begin Again. The peace you yearn for is right in front of you and within you if you can get good at beginning again. That’s why I call it a practice, it’s something you must practice and then you get better at it. Getting better at beginning again will let you feel the peace within you, underneath the waves of neurotic thoughts on the surface.

When you practice Begin Again in the choppy moments of your life, and when as a result you develop peace, you will change the world. And isn’t that what you want to do? Aren’t there aspects of your world you want to change – aspects that are stale and funky and perhaps smelly? Your habits of using your phone to disappear away into another world where you don’t have to take responsibility? Not asking your partner or friend what they want in case they tell the truth and you have to be generous and give them something? Your habit of being angry or mean to yourself or others?

Begin Again, and release your judgments and shame. Begin Again and choose powerfully into wrangling with your own bad habits. This will release your own wisdom about what really needs to be done, right here right now. No need to keep doing something just because you did it in the past, but begin again and choose what is needed right now. If you were to begin again – is kindness what you would bring to your relationship with your partner? Is there a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while, and you’re not sure whether you’re not talking with them or they are not talking with you, or you do remember – does it matter? Can you begin again and bring connection?

What about the mess in the house, or the repairs that didn’t get done. Is there any obstacle to beginning again? To cleaning the toilet, to clearing the pile, to giving away all the many things that you don’t ever actually use and discovering the peace that arises within the abundance that comes from letting go?

What about your social media habits – are you engaged in throwing rocks into the crowd with the words you choose? Perhaps it seems fun or useful for a second but is it really fun when it figuratively opens up a gash in their skull and they blindly lash back and the cycle continues? If you were to begin again is there anything to stop you choosing to speak words of kindness, wisdom, love and support to the people directly around you? Would this not begin to change the world into one you would prefer to live in?

Begin Again.

I practice this in my own life, imperfectly of course. What I have learned is this: In order to change the world, beginning with myself, I must wrestle and wrangle my lifestyle into alignment with the four main aspects of an open heart: loving-kindness, compassion, joy and peace. So when I find myself tight or anxious, or in the middle of trying to prove myself right, I just let go, being again, and choose something that is in alignment with loving-kindness, compassion, joy or peace instead. So the path to being enveloped by these qualities in your life is “Begin Again”. 

Will you do the same? 

If your Covid experience was anything like many of ours there are many long-lingering effects. There is likely stagnation, there is likely a lot of stale air that must be breathed out from your being. If you choose to spend your time reading the news headlines and scrolling, you are enveloped by thick hot staleness. You must begin again. You must breathe out.

Even in the middle of an argument, you can begin again and say “I’m so sorry, this isn’t who I want to be, can we begin again: I love you.” A whole new world opens up as soon as we step into alignment by beginning again.

The wisdom of “Begin Again” is always available to us. It’s one of those slightly annoying and also deeply relieving and peace-creating spiritual truths, depending on our attitude. Such spiritual truths flow within you. When you recognize them they shine bright as a red-hot coal in the darkness. Touch it, blow on it, don’t worry it won’t harm you, but it will burn more brightly with your attention and you will know its truth. Align with it and it will restart the fire of your life.

Begin Again contains all the most powerful teachings wrapped up in these two simple words. If we choose into this as a lifetime practice we will change the world – our world and the world of everyone we interact with, and the worlds of everyone they interact with, and so on. Eventually the entire universe changes, all stemming from your choice in the moment to begin again.

Breathing out and beginning a new breath fans the flame of spaciousness. The act of releasing what’s finished begins a new act of creation. Let go of what needs to be let go simply by beginning again and with the very first step come into alignment with what you want to create. Peace. Love. Kindness. Compassion. Joy.

I’ve created a guided meditation to help you with the practice of Begin Again, using your breath as a reminder. You can access it here below.