The mind can stay youthful, curious, slowing time down to a manageable pace even as we grow old. Time is flexible, like a rubber band, we can slowly pull it back and forth or we can let it go and it will snap back into place faster than we can think!

Keeping time slow and the mind young is interesting. One way we can play with that is to interrupt our usual routines and patterns. It's hard. All these self-help-mindset-try-this-and-you-can-change-your-life-systems are ubiquitous and yet, it just doesn't work like that. What is easy is to start really small. We can always end big later. Just like a steep mountain pass, we can climb step by step and must pace ourselves to our own pace to make it to the top.

Have you ever walked with someone who has a different walking speed than you? It is strenuous! It can be more stressful and energy consuming to walk slower at someone else's pace than to walk a bit faster but at your own pace. So interesting, isn't it?

Now, here's a little example from my own life. I got all these testers for facial creams. Somehow I recently got into my head that I want to find a different cream. There's a chance that it is better than what I am using now. Regardless, it will alleviate the boredom I experience with my current cream. The thing with routine though, even when we are sick of it, it is like a black hole that can be hard to escape from.

A short trip gave me the solution. As I packed my bags I packed no other facial cream except for the myriad of tiny tester bags. On arrival it was easy to interrupt my previous pattern. I don't like any of the creams, but I feel lighter and more distanced from the black hole of routine. Boredom, for me, does not come from stillness and nothingness, it comes from routines that feel stale and stagnant.

We can think of life as a burning, sacred flame. To keep it alive, we need to keep feeding it new wood. If we try to keep the flame burning with just what is in it, soon it will turn to ashes and a flickering bright flame will simmer down to glowing coals until it goes out completely.

Hopefully this blog post gives you a log to throw on the flame of your life. May you keep burning brightly!