500 Words a Week - Begin Again
“Just notice how things begin and change and end, again and again. This brings poignancy to life, but it can also bring a fundamental freedom. It’s always possible to being again. Every previous moment of embarrassment, or agitation, or frustration, or fear has passed. This next one will also pass. Knowing that can be a very direct path to equanimity.” – Sam Harris
I like what Sam is trying to remind us of, that it is always possible to begin again. We can always look to salvage a moment. We can always look forward by reminding ourselves to simply begin again.
It’s similar to Tom Hank’s phrase “This too shall pass”. In life, sometimes the emotions we feel in a moment can be overwhelming. They can prevent us from being able to see with the clarity we once had, as we are consumed by what we are currently feeling. As Sam and Tom remind us, what we are currently experiencing will pass and it’s then we can look to begin again. To bring a new lease of life to the next moment, conversation, or interaction. It’s when we get stuck dwelling on the past, and negative emotions begin to spiral into each other when we are in trouble.
Beginning again to me also means that we be less harsh on ourselves. Sometimes we slip up, we may respond to something in a way we didn’t like or say something we regret. But we can move on, we can look to begin again. By endlessly ruminating on the moment and wondering why we said something or why we did something, we get no closer to making amends. In realizing that the moment was in the past, now in the present what can we do? How can we make amends? How can we move forward?
Thinking about this concept of begin again, can also help us when we are having a poor or frustrating day. Maybe we feel things haven’t been going well, or we’ve been consumed into endlessly doom scrolling on our phone. Rather than just succumbing to this feeling of “I’m just having a bad day”, we can pause, reflect that everything that has already happened is in the past, now can we begin again. Can we make the next moment feel worthwhile, and then the subsequent moments after that.
