Everything I know about my life can be summarized in patterns. As the clock turns every minute, hour, and day – so the patterns play out in my life. Everything repeats itself in patterns.
I would even venture to say that intelligence is nothing but a superior ability to recognize patterns – outside in the world, and more importantly, within yourself (besides – the outside world is always a reflection of your true self, unobscured by lies of thought).
The ability to transform your own life also lies in your ability to see your own patterns and recognize them for what they are.
Have you been stuck in the same types of relationships for years? Does every day seem to be a mirror of every other? Do you ever get the sense that you have gone through the same thing over and over again, and have an eerie suspicion that they’re all connected.
Throughout our lives, we repeat the same patterns, most of them unconsciously. The same way you know how to drive your car without you having to even think about it, your life is probably run by a large collection of patterns you have acquired since early childhood, and you are not even aware of them.
Essentially your life is now running you and not the other way around.
One day you might get out of your car at the end of your commute from work and think “Wow, I don’t remember the last 20 minutes. How did I get here?” Well, the same could probably be said of your entire life. You’ve gotten to where you are by following specific patterns, most of them unconsciously.
There are positive patterns and there are negative patterns. The negative ones are especially the most useful to recognize, but your own protection mechanisms (or self-preservation patterns) often conspire to keep their real structures away from your own view. So start small and keep following your own patterns to see where they lead.
It’s one of the easiest ways to start changing your life – start observing your own patterns. Become aware. Become conscious. Realize why you just said what you said. Why you just did what you did. Why the last thought in your mind sounded like it did. As soon as you start doing this, you will start seeing what’s really there. You will open up the lid to your own mentally-created rabbit hole (and believe me, it runs deep). But you started, and that’s all that matters.
As soon as you make this a practice in your life, it will deepen and transform your own understanding of yourself and how you view the world.
The good news is this – everything you encounter – the entire universe – is a mirror of a world which you have created. It reflects to you your desires and your fears. If you look at someone in the street and have a negative reaction, ask yourself why. Really look. You will find that somehow that person has triggered a negative pattern you saw sometime earlier in your life.
It may have been a homeless person that your father taught you to avoid and fear at the age of 8 and that pattern has been playing out ever since.
Think of something that really bugs you. Maybe it’s when someone brings up the topic of money. Start looking at what thoughts you mind starts generating. If they’re negative, realize that somewhere along the way you’ve developed specific patterns about what you think money represents to you in life – and what reactions you are now playing out as patterns.
If your mom and dad argued about money when you were little, you may have developed a pattern of associating money with fear and pain. Your reaction pattern may have become one where when money is mentioned, you withdraw or feel fearful. Sometimes these feelings and patterns are so subtle, it’s almost difficult to recognize (only because you also probably have an avoidance pattern overlaid on top of it to help you cope with life, also learned sometime earlier in life).
The really deep rooted patterns are the ones that are also the most difficult to see (and the ones that will also give you the most freedom, once you uncover them).
Once you start seeing patterns in the world, they will give you insight into reactionary and emotional patterns you have developed in response to them. Your entire life is probably just a collection of patterns overlaid over other patterns. Your specific patterns and how you play them out form the basis of your entire life.
So start unraveling. Become aware. Start noticing your patterns. After all, they are your life.
Love the post!
and the picture!
This reminds me of a conversation I recently had and a few books. Funny how patterns find a way to be recognized in all the noise or at least pulled through our line of sight until we can finally spot the trend.
Thanks.
Love this! I never thought about it this way before. I bookmarked it as a psychological post and how it is similar to challenging beliefs. Always asking why you think that way, why you did something that way. Life is about curiousity. I think it is very interesting to break down patterns like this. And to break down societal constructs, like a good job, getting married early, things that are “expected” by “the greater good”
Thanks for sparking my curiosity!
As an experiment (and you never know unless you try, right?) I deleted everything except workout plans off of my calendar and will finish my todo list and leave it blank, open to the moment of things to do.
that sounds like a fun experiment – let me know how it goes. it’s only our agreement to societal constructs (you mentioned) that make them real. as soon as you stop giving them agreement (or reality) they can fade away. only when you let go of patterns or constructs, do you feel the real freedom of life
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