A Moment of profound insight isn't the product of mysterious spontaneous heightened awareness .
We have a tendency to ignore the small contributors in our lives. In fact, I would like to propose that great moments are the product of the accumulative effect of all the little things.
We become very accustom to habits of our daily routines, always adding and subtracting behaviours and insights never really feeling how they modify us. Until they hit that point that Malcolm Gladwell refers to as "the tipping point".
We have a tendency to ignore the small contributors in our lives. In fact, I would like to propose that great moments are the product of the accumulative effect of all the little things.
We become very accustom to habits of our daily routines, always adding and subtracting behaviours and insights never really feeling how they modify us. Until they hit that point that Malcolm Gladwell refers to as "the tipping point".
The moment that stirs us from our routine way of thinking is that point at which there is enough accumulation that it provokes a need to modify or gives us that one missing clue to a puzzle we've lazily played with. Because of the grandeur and the emotional rattling elicited in that moment, we feel that it can't possibly be attributed to something like those seemingly insignificant daily habits.
Those who just slightly modify their habits from time to time, are opening up subtle opportunities for change. Transformations rarely hit like a lightning bolt from the sky, but by permitting little bits of change to become a part of our daily routine, or embracing new relationships; we propel our selves toward that accumulative effect.
I encourage you to not underestimate the power of the small things as they are precisely what add up to make your day, and avoid the tendency to be over swayed by the importance of the big things.
There's a Chinese proverb that says," How do you move a mountain?" One rock at a time."
Those who just slightly modify their habits from time to time, are opening up subtle opportunities for change. Transformations rarely hit like a lightning bolt from the sky, but by permitting little bits of change to become a part of our daily routine, or embracing new relationships; we propel our selves toward that accumulative effect.
I encourage you to not underestimate the power of the small things as they are precisely what add up to make your day, and avoid the tendency to be over swayed by the importance of the big things.
There's a Chinese proverb that says," How do you move a mountain?" One rock at a time."
Hey Sean,
I would like to say that the same can be applied to the physical aspect of our lives. Creating good physical habits can help our overall daily well being. For example, as you know, lower back problems can be attributed in some cases to repetitive flexion (bending forward), sitting for long periods of time and bad posture to name a few. If people were able to incorporate better lifting techniques, walk around the office periodically or just paid better attention to how they stood it would help alleviate some of the stress that is placed on the lower back. These small changes can have a profound effect in a person’s life. Adding to your point that everything we do can make a difference. Think of this as a form of corrective living.
I totally agree. I work with people who have lower back pain, and with certainty I can say that the cure is in all the small things that individual does. Making good choices, understanding their personal contribution to the condition, and working toward resolution with patience while not expecting a quick fix; inevitably resolves the condition.
Thanks for a great point.
Its strange how both comments echo in their subject matter that of my own first associations when I read this cool post. Specifically I was thinking of a little exercise on David Gorman's (Learning Methods--used to be an Alexander Technique teacher). The exercise is basically just that of standing up, noticing the extent to which your weight is not equally distributed over your feet, exaggerating that a little so as to see how the muscles must grip and hold up the bones to keep you from falling over when this is the case, and the noticing how effortless in comparison standing and moving generally can be when one is not wasting energy correcting for the fact that one is needlessly tilting oneself out of natural support in the first place. Very simple thing to experience and understand but doing it consistantly is really quite liberating in its effect and I think also somewhat subversive in its implication (which might account for whatever difficulty people might have in doing it consistently. Anyway Thanks for Posting,
--I-P
I can relate to what you’re talking about. I frequently have people in my studio that suffer from heel and foot pain and it’s frequently caused by the poor distribution of their weight over their feet. More commonly I find they adopt a posture of perpetually falling forward, which causes the toes to dig hard into the floor and eventually manifests as pain in the bottoms of the feet or heel and calf pain.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.