Start Small - Notice

Start here - start small.  Stop. Make time to breathe it all in, create space in which to allow noticing to happen.

Even the tiniest things often have a much larger connection beneath the surface - start with the small things and allow them to show you the larger connections!

Even the tiniest things often have a much larger connection beneath the surface - start with the small things and allow them to show you the larger connections!

Look around you. Notice the little things. See the patterns, look for the systems, the tiny connections between the little things, and the big things. 

Look for the "invisible" connections - the dynamics of relationships between things, the attractions, the repulsions, the resonance that chimes in your heart, your soul, your mind.

What makes your eyes widen, eyebrows arch, breath catch?

When you slow down and stare into space, where do your eyes focus, how does your mind float on the waves of awareness? When you're walking from somewhere to elsewhere, where does your mind drift to? 

Notice what stories your mind tells you about these things. Are they true?  Are they *really* true?  What are other stories you can come up with that might also be plausible about these things?  What are wildly, egregiously implausible stories you can come up with? 

What happens if you change your perspective? Turn these things over in your hands, look at them as if you were looking at the dark side of the moon, or turning over a large rock in the forest or at the beach. What scurries out from the hidden sides of the things that look so normal on the surface?

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." - Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

And before you go too far down that rabbit hole, also take into consideration Aristotle's observation that, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Just because you thought it, definitely doesn't mean you believe it. Even if it seems rational. 

To start with, just notice what you see, what you hear, what you feel, what you think, what you believe. Your noticing is a conscious decision to be aware.  Without awareness - of the connections, the stories, the ability to change perspectives of the stories, and recognizing your own role in how you perceive the frameworks that you create in order to hold it all together, your own stories - you are much more limited in your ability to make change when you decide to make change.  

For it is in noticing all the little pieces, playing with them, adjusting them, that paths forward become more clear.  Even if you notice you have to clear some brush to better see it - at least you were able to take time to notice it.