Adjustments
Adjustment: noun; plural noun: adjustments
a) a small alteration or movement made to achieve a desired fit, appearance, or result.
b) the process of adapting or becoming used to a new situation.
I have been doing yoga on and off for the last couple of years. I say “doing” rather than “practicing” because I do not go through the motions in any consistent way. (Just like I am not "practicing” the piano, I just dabble.) Also, I do not use yoga for any religious or spiritual reasons. I just like the stretching and toning it provides.
The other day I was doing my yoga stretches and was moving through a pose called “cat/cow.” One is on all fours (palms on ground under shoulders and knees under hips). One “drops the belly” producing a sway back - looking like a cow hanging down with belly and udders full- and then “curls back”- lifting one’s back in an arch like a cat would do.
I have done that pose numerous times but, as is said in every yoga practice, one needs to think about the movements each time and not just quickly go through them. The instructor reminded me that in the cow position I needed to reach my heart (upper chest) forward as the belly dropped. It was a slight shift and change than what I had been doing and it really made a difference with the stretch.
I thought about that small change as I was playing tennis the other night. Just a simple extra movement in my feet or shoulder position can make a huge change in how I handle the ball. If I step forward into the ball instead of waiting for it to come to me, I can sometimes produce a winning shot.
A small alteration that can make a big impact.
The other part of the definition for adjustment is the process for adapting to a new situation. I would say that most of us are in that category just by default of the pandemic. I think of teachers and students in the classrooms: they have had to adjust to masks, where they sit, what type of recess and play they can have, even how close the instructors can be in helping them.
Anyone of us who has been in a store or any position of waiting knows how we have unwittingly learned to adapt. For instance, it now seems normal to be six feet apart while queuing at the grocery store. I think of the old days that if I saw people standing beyond the conveyor belt, I would think that was such a long line and look for another checker. Now, seeing a person beyond the conveyor belt means that the line is only one person long because of the space we give one another.
I am finding the word adjustment in my spiritual thoughts as well. In the NT, Paul reminds us that we can transform our hearts through the renewing of our minds. One way we do that is in reading and rereading the Bible. Each time we look at a passage, God speaks to our hearts and we can choose to adjust to a new mindset, behavior or attitude.
In reading the book of Ecclesiastes, I am adjusting to the concept that I am nothing outside of God. As is the case with God, He (and life) is always a paradox: we are nothing apart from Him but everything with Him. The things that I worry about and spend my time doing or thinking about are not that important and won’t last. What is important and will last is my contribution to what God is doing. An idea that is humbling and strengthening all at the same time. Humbling, knowing that I am a mere cog in the wheel of life but also strengthening (to my confidence), knowing that I am a cog in the wheel of life and that what God has called me to do and what plans He has for me are things that only I can do. My contributions are important. Each day, I need to concentrate on that which I am called to do and to enjoy what comes down my path.
For if I would die today, tomorrow or in the next couple of minutes, I wouldn’t change a thing. It is like the lesson the main character, Emily learns in Thornton Wilders’ play Our Town: I appreciate and love the ordinariness of life and my daily activities. It is in the ordinariness of our calling that we find the extra-ordinary meaning of life.
What about you? What adjustments have been made in your life? Were they (are they) big or small? To your work schedule? To your finances? To your family? To your values? To your priorities? What adjustments can you make in your day today? What small changes to your physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual activities can you make?
Some possible ideas:
Getting up fifteen minutes earlier to just collect your thoughts.
Choosing to forgo the dessert.
Trying a new recipe.
Smiling to someone who generally ticks you off.
Straightening your desk at the end of the day.
Refusing to answer or comment on a snarky social media or email.
Breathing deeply when feeling stressed.
Finding pleasure in small things of life: A flower on your desk, glancing at the star-filled sky, noticing the weather outside your window (whether it is rain, snow, fog, sun).
Reading a chapter in a book.
Memorizing a favorite quote or Bible verse.
Driving home via a new route.
Saving $10/week (or whatever might fit your budget).
Sending a note of gratitude to a co-worker.
W@TW: Groundhog Day. Every. Day.
This year it seemed as if every where I turned, the 1993 movie Groundhog Day was being shown. Have you ever felt like Bill Murray's character in the movie? Try as he might, the character cannot get out of the time loop- the rut of living in the same day with the same encounters, the same problems and the same solutions. At first he thinks that this is a great idea, because he realizes that he doesn't live with any consequences to his actions: tomorrow will be the same and life doesn't move forward. Eventually he realizes that this is insanity and not healthy.
The movie has humorous moments as well as raises some existential questions. It is considered a contemporary classic. Surely we can enjoy watching it because the daily repeat is happening to someone else. After all, we don't live in a groundhog day world, or do we?
Sometimes I wonder if I do, especially when it comes to my reactions to situations. Many times I find myself behaving in the same way, each time, even when I am trying hard not too and trying to break myself of a life-long pattern. It is if I am on the same emotionally reactive loop. If someone comments to me about this, I will always react with that. And it is not a healthy reaction.
Or, I find I make the same life-style choices. Each week I might plan to do something different from my normal pattern, e.g. eat better, drink less, exercise more. I might hope to change a lifestyle pattern that I feel is not helpful nor healthy. Yet once again, I fall into the time loop of the same pattern of behavior.
In the movie, it is finally through self-awareness and love that begins the change in Bill Murray's character's life.
I think there is more to this groundhog lifestyle than that. I also think that more of us suffer a groundhog lifestyle than we care to admit. How many of us try all sorts of self-help: podcasts, books, counselors, hypnotists, coaches, therapists, classes? According to one source I read, in 2008 the self-help industry was over a billion dollar industry. If self-help truly worked, as humankind we should have discovered the solution by now. Certainly pouring money into the problem doesn't necessarily help. I think that the problem in self-help is the self.
While self-help items are not necessarily bad resources, we cannot put our faith in those resources alone. I believe that those resources need to be used in tandem with the ultimate One in self awareness; asking God to transform us by the renewing of our minds. It is only the Creator who knows us and who knows how He created us to be. He knows what will work and not work for our individual lifestyle. Only He can help us in stopping something harmful or embracing something worthwhile in our lives.
There is no magic bullet. I have found the best way to stop the time loop is through prayer and learning more about God through His word the Bible. I am a disciplined person and I think I have some willpower, but some things in my life willpower alone cannot help. I need some spiritual guidance and intervention to stop the knee-jerk reactions I have in certain situations. Sometimes it is in recalling a scripture that guides to a different reaction. Other times it is the act of prayer that guides my speech.
What about you? Do you feel like you are living a groundhog lifestyle? Do you end up on the treadmill or time loop of life? Have you ever been able to change it? How? What works for you?
Ground hog day is also a day of prediction for the future. I know that if I transform my mind, I will get out of that time loop pattern of behavior and have a different future.