Healing Space | How to make a fresh start again, and again

The beginner is more likely to take their knowledge forward with gravity and grace than the all-knowing expert. (Illustration by Suneesh K.)

Note to readers: Healing Space is a weekly series that helps you dive into your mental health and take charge of your wellbeing through practical DIY self-care methods.

We have multiple New Years in India, and whichever one you celebrate—Gregorian, Tamil, Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Pohela Baishakh, Vaishakhi, or Diwali, Tibetan or Chinese—the principle of the constantly available new beginning is a great symbol of living in the present. New Years represent the momentum of starting again, a Zen principle known as the ‘beginner’s mind’, a Japanese Buddhist term called (初心) ‘Shoshin’.

In all knowledge-based philosophies or religions, the emphasis is on studying and understanding correctly how to live. However, this also tends to result in the conceptual trap of thinking too highly of one’s knowledge. Experts, while greatly valued, can become tone deaf, condescending, and unable to question themselves. This is the same principle by which for centuries experts proclaimed with great certainty that the earth was at the centre of the universe or that it was flat. Intellectual hubris exists in all professions and operates on confirmation bias. By contrast, the beginner approaches learning with humility, openness and self-awareness that they are on a learning curve, need to ask questions and understand. The beginner is far likely to take their knowledge forward with gravity and grace than the all-knowing expert.

Both the repetitive New Year and the beginner’s mind are rooted in the present moment. The present moment is valued because it is where the past is resolved, and what the future is born out of. Regardless of how many times you succeeded or failed in the past, and regardless of how much you think you already know, what does this moment bring you? The ability to rest in this moment brings fresh perspective and impetus. All is not lost because your resolutions for 2022 haven’t been fulfilled, because even if three quarters of the year have passed, you still have the now, the fresh beginning, and you can approach it with a clean slate, again.

We are fortunate to live in an environment where, for one reason or another, the new year, whether Gregorian or financial, is always barely more than two months away from the previous one. This sets an environmental stage for the fresh perspective. The beginner’s mind is what you can bring to the month, week or day of giving it another go. This may be with regards to a diet, an exercise programme, or a portfolio, a work opportunity or a relationship matter. Instead of asking yourself ‘how many more times am I going to fail at this?’ try changing the vocabulary of the self-talk to: ‘it’s amazing I have yet another chance at this, let me try and make the most of it’. You’ll be surprised at how simply reframing and rewording the cyclic return changes the way you approach something.

Beginner’s mind and a fresh start don’t mean that you won’t fail at something, or factors won’t influence it again. If you’ve ever played the game Samorost 3, you’ll notice the little alien has to attempt the same gesture multiple times before you even understand how the objects in a level work. We seem to be able to do this very often in gaming, even if you slip back and have to reattempt levels you’ve already cleared, but in life, we give up, we lose patience, and we miss the lesson. Life, like seasons, is cyclical. The spring, summer, autumn and winter, or monsoon and summer that come around are not the same as the year before, but they will come around for sure. The farmer knows this best. Last year’s monsoon may have failed him, but this year’s brings another opportunity, a window that is just as brief and subject to factors outside his control. He will not be so arrogant as to know the weather, even if he has been a farmer for decades. He comes with beginner’s mind. And so, how can he not try again? It is in his nature as a farmer to hope his puny seed wins against the elements of the whole wild world, from pest to storm.

The present moment is considered precious because it is all that is in our control, and all that is real, tangible. Everything outside it is a hope, intention, anxiety, regret or memory, a conceptual object. This moment is all you can influence, alter, change and through it, everything else. It exists in a continuum like streaming units of electricity that make the light look like a seamless stream. This moment has come around again with fresh impetus. The new year is here, and it will be here again in a short while. How are you beginning again?