“Only that day dawns to which you are awake.” – Henry David Thoreau
If you’re not paying attention, you might miss it
For a week or two each autumn, my morning walk with the dogs is in synch with the dawn. We head out in the dark of night and, as we walk, the sky softly, gradually, lightens. By the time we turn back into our drive, the new day has officially begun.
The thing about dawn is that if you’re not paying attention, you can easily miss it. If you, like me, are considering how you might rearrange some furniture, or are pondering what meals sound good for the coming week, or are rehashing a conversation from the day before, you can look up and realize with some surprise that it’s no longer dark.
But when you are paying attention, when you steadfastly draw yourself away from your thoughts and back to your surroundings over and over again, you will not regret experiencing the mundane and wonderful dawning of a new day. Simply experiencing your outer world can change your inner world.
Allow the small differences in things that happen every single day to fascinate you
Although dawn happens daily, it’s never, ever the same. Some days it’s all about shades of gray – the sky sliding subtly from charcoal black to the softest gray you can imagine – so light that it’s almost white. Some days it is all about the “BIV” portion of the ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) spectrum that makes up the rainbow. Still other days it’s pinks and oranges splashed haphazardly across the sky.
The feelings dawn stirs in my heart are as varied as the skies. Just last week, I woke up tired and a little blue. As the dogs and I left the house, I felt my mood reflected by the darkness surrounding us. As the sky began to lighten, so did my energy and my outlook. On that day, the dawn felt like a re-start for me – a whole new beginning to my day.
A day or two later, I woke up positively effervescent. I could not wait to start the day. The dogs felt my enthusiasm and were dancing in their harnesses. As we bounced along and the night sky shifted toward day, it felt like the whole world was cheering me on – “You go girl! It is going to be a great day!”
The world around you can be a source of support and reflection – but only if you’re tuned in
I came home from both dawn walks deeply grateful for the way that the world around me can be a source of support, a well for reflection, or a cosmic cheerleader. But the depth of this connection is a two-way street. If I’m not paying attention and fail to notice the skies lightening toward morning, the world around me on my walks cannot support me, provide me with the “material” for introspection, or even add an exclamation point to an already good day. In other words, if I’m not actively engaged with my outer world, it doesn’t have a chance of changing me.
Before we can settle into attentiveness, we must recognize and accept how distractible we are
Contemplative practices such as yoga are designed to help us pay attention – to not miss out on anything that is happening moment to moment. But first, what most of us learn is how deeply distractible we are. We notice how very often we allow our miraculous, thought-manufacturing mind to lure us back into the past (dwelling on things we said or wish we’d said, or wondering what happened) or out into the future (worrying, anticipating, or planning).
It’s not hard work and willpower that create lasting change, but knowing how good it feels to be present
I’d like to be clear here. It’s not a great deal of fun to realize how much work we still have left to do. But, like the gifts of witnessing the dawning of a brand-new day, without our awareness of our wandering tendencies, lasting change simply cannot happen. There is only so far that willpower can carry us. Perhaps you, like me, know what it’s like to try so hard to relax and stay in the moment that you’re doing so with squeezed fists, a squished-up face and frustrated sighs every time you realize that yet again you need to draw yourself back to the present?
Experiences like this will not keep you coming back to practice. In fact, eventually they will probably deter you from doing so. What will not only keep you coming back, but also open you to change, is the awareness and acceptance that you need this practice; that it not only feels better for you to stay present in the present, but it will make you more effective and happier when you manage to pull it off.
Once the outer world changes you, it leaves you wanting more
Which brings me back to the “other” walk that I took that same week. The walk where I finally (finally!) figured out how I’d like to rearrange my living room but did so at the cost of missing out on the dawn of a brand-new day. Did my distraction from the world around me wreck my day? No. In fact, I came home pretty darn happy with my new idea.
In fact, I didn’t even really realize that I’d missed the dawn until my next walk when I was so absorbed in the world around me. Back at home, as I untied my sneakers, still basking in the feelings of lightness that came from my more contemplative walk, I gratefully thought to myself, “This! This I’d like more of.” And – good news! – the world around me is always there for me when I’m ready to try again to soak it in and let it change the world within me.
Experience of the manifest world has for its purpose providing the individual with the means for self-experience, spiritual evolution, and liberation. – Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.18