We all live in a box. It’s constructed from our beliefs. Beliefs are just thoughts. Thoughts that were given to us. By our parents. By our cultures. By our societies. Simply thoughts, but calcified. Thoughts we’ve held for so long that we stop thinking about them. We take them as assumptions of the way the world is. The way we are. We construct this box, this framing, each and every day. We do it by rote. This is the way the world is. This is my place in it. This is the way the world is. This is my place in it. This is the way…
But then…
WHAM!
Something breaks through the box. Shatters the walls for just a moment. And in that moment, before we habitually build our box again, we see. We allow in. We perceive. Something. Different.
The cracks in the box allow us to perceive things that we normally don’t allow ourselves to experience. Allow us to step outside of the well tended garden of our beliefs, and understand, if even for one moment, that that garden, those walls, is just a tiny place that we’ve constructed. Because it felt safe. Because we were told to. Because we didn’t want to understand that the world we live in is so much more. The tiny garden of our beliefs is surrounded. Encircled. Enclosed in a much bigger, wilder, more wonderful place. A place where we can see, sometimes for just one moment, that those beliefs were just simple thoughts after all. Thoughts that can be changed.
That WHAM? That’s wonder. The state of wonder.
We built Delight Factory with the intention of encouraging and calling in moments of wonder. We created and host the Ego Free Jam each month because of the wonder I’ve experienced through making music with others, through finding a groove with others. We host the Jam with the intention and desire of allowing for others to experience those moments too. Those moments where the thoughts quiet. Where we do something we’ve never done before that our beliefs tell us we can’t, or shouldn’t. We go on a dance with our limiting beliefs, deliberately choosing to live outside their walls for just one second. To see that the world won’t kill us. To know that we can try new and scary things. To connect with others. To connect with something beyond ourselves. Beyond our perception of ourself. To give us the chance to…
WHAM
crack open the box. Step outside of our beliefs, which can feel like stepping outside of ourselves. And see that we are more than those walls can contain. That the walls are not the world. That life is full of beauty and delight and complexity and simplicity and darkness and light. That it is unlimited, and full of sounds and silences that stretch far beyond the walls we’ve constructed.
What practice do you put in place to crack open your boxes?
Where do you allow yourself to be opened?
Where do you experience wonder?
Beautifully said. 💜