The Power of Little
No one will ever convince me that a sunset is “little.”
Small change leads to big change. This is a phrase one of my teachers, Dr. David Krueger of Mentor Path, New Life Stories uses often. I like it because it’s true. Especially from a body, mind, soul perspective and in working with the subtle body. A simple thought (subtle mind body) can hold the power of an entire belief system influencing everything from a person’s career choice, to life partner and what they choose to eat for breakfast in the morning. Most of the time I am using this in the sense of lifestyle improvements. Reminding people that every book starts with a single word, every marathon a single step and every mountain a small pebble. And there are even smaller inner, subtle body, steps that need to align before choosing words, stepping into a race or collecting pebbles. In this way of seeing big is little, little is big. I would go so far as to say there is no such thing as big. There is only little added up. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Sometimes I feel frustrated by the lack of power “little” seems to hold in the world. It’s like slow. Slow is the answer to so many crises we face on the planet. Yet, for most people practicing slow is arduous, frustrating and extreme torture. Little is like slow. When I ask a class what they are grateful for, I will often hear back, “It’s the little things… you know like a sunset or my dog greeting me when I get home.” I realize that what they really mean by “little” is familiar, common or the things we take for granted. Natural beauty is not little. The power of our earth is not little. The essentialness of nature to wellness and wholeness and vitality of life is not little. No one will ever convince me that a sunset is “little.”
Have you ever wondered how the “little” things add up in your life?
For the good and for the bad. For example, most people know that they are supposed to brush their teeth for two minutes or 30 seconds per quadrant two-three x per day. That is only four to six minutes of a 24-hour day. It seems to me that four-six minutes is a very “little” amount of time. In the “big” scheme of life. It could easily be labeled minuscule or even irrelevant. You might wait longer for your toast to pop or your coffee to reheat. Yet, would you be willing to stop brushing your teeth … for a day... a week? or a month?... How about a year?
Little repeated always adds up to big.
This is what happens with all of our daily habits. Habits are simply little repeated actions that have become familiar to us. Sometimes so familiar we don’t even notice them. Dr. David Krueger shared a study with me about how little becomes big.
In summary, “Dr. Ben Fletcher of the University of Hertfordshire (UK) devised a study to get people to break their usual “little” habits. First, he categorized people according to whether they were introverts or extroverts. Then he categorized behavioural tasks into poles of contrast; for example, lively vs quiet, introverted vs extroverted, reactive vs proactive. Finally, subjects were required to choose behaviours in contrast to their personality type and repeat this for the duration of the 17-week study. So an introvert would act as an extrovert and vise versa. Though participants were expected to eat differently twice a week.; the study was not designed for weight loss, nor were participants required to change caloric intake or exercise levels.
“Surprisingly, after four month, the subjects had lost an average of eleven pounds. Six months later, almost all had kept the weight off.” ”
The findings were totally unexpected. Everyone knows changing habits is hard work, but researchers were not expecting a correlation with weight loss. In my words, these findings are similar to discovering unexpected migraine comorbidities like the correlation between sleep and migraine, mitral valve prolapse and migraine, gluten sensitivity, asthma, Raynaud’s, essential tremor, epilepsy and migraine. Who would have thought acting differently in “little” ways every day for four months could substitute for a weight loss program? It goes to show that when people have to think about their decisions rather than acting on auto-pilot -life changes. Small change leads to big change.
Having to arrive consciously at a choice point before acting is hard work. It may slow life down, but it also makes it more precise and provides fewer unintended consequences. Subjects had to slow down long enough to realize what their habitual choice would be (red or blue pill) and then choose the opposite. Sounds kind of like torture, but it also illuminates the power of little splendidly. Feeling that “little” urge to call a friend and having to choose time in silence, or feeling that “little” impulse to text and having to sit down and read a book… these “little” choices are not little at all! When I teach people how to meditate I say if you forget the power of the breath just don’t breathe in for the next 3 minutes, you’ll have no problem remembering after that. These “little” biological facts are the drivers of life. They are the impulses, urges, and desires preceding the action.
The arising beneath the choice point at the heart of the sacred life story we are living.
Getting to the choice point and the energy required to process decisions rather than habitually reacting, is what Dr. Fletcher’s study really demonstrated. He revealed that all habits before they were habits, were once a “little” choice that over time added up. In essence, Dr. Fletcher’s study illuminated the power of “little” choice points.
Choice point illumination is the grand Pooba of meditation. What many people don’t realize is that all choice points begin on the inside. Before the first word is ever written there are a series of internal choices that have been made and the same goes for the marathon and the mountain, though I have no idea how to describe the choice points to build a mountain. Once a person becomes aware of their “little” choice point they are truly in a magnificent position of power.
From my experience, choice points are found in embodiment. If you can’t feel the urge to breathe, eat, sleep, distract, cry, laugh or rage you are clearly not only missing the point, you are missing the choice point. At the heart of impulse, urge, and desire is our pure potential. It’s wrapped up in a habit, a reaction, a cluster of emotions but it’s there with us in the dark. Waiting. Within the subtle body layers of our body, mind, soul continuum are our choice points and our life story. We are vast creators in this field of pure potential. Like the sunset is magnificent, our pure potential is magnificent. It’s what transforms life from just a ho-hum, yadda yadda, big whoop life to a sacred life story. At the heart of every sacred problem, adversary, shadow figure and villain is a choice point. Within the power of the heart is our pure potential. Within our pure potential, little is freakin massive!
