Reboot

Practice is something that implies continual growth, but also returning to familiar things and refining our knowledge.  Going 'back to basics' is something that many people do, returning to things they learned early in their practice, and restudying them.  There is great value in doing this, as you have learned so much since you first experienced the thing, and now you can look on it with all your accrued knowledge and experience.  Revisiting grounding for the tenth time brings layers of understanding that you just couldn't grasp the first time through.

Returning to a subject is a necessary thing, but it is also a building thing.  When we go back to a basic practice, we take with us all that we have learned before.  We aren't coming at it from the same place as a new student.  This is how almost all higher education works, you keep coming back to simple things, and adding to your stores of knowledge.  This is how we build up such elaborate libraries of information.

Rebooting is something else entirely.  Rebooting doesn't draw as much from your experiences...because the point is to completely clear the slate.  It's like working with an AI program that learns your preferences over time...and reverting it to factory settings.  You have to start over, from the very start, and build it all up again.

Now, of course we aren't devices and we can't achieve a full and proper reboot.  There is no way (short of developing amnesia, which I don't recommend lol) to actually separate what we have learned and truly start over.  But we can get close.  And the way to do that is to focus on learning 'as if it were your first time.'

This is a kind of subtle distinction, and it involves a bit of stepping outside yourself.  But the benefits are often worth it.  The downside of just going back to basics is there is always the temptation to keep stuff you know works.  You are already doing daily practice, so why not just keep doing it?  The problem is that if you just keep adding onto what you are already doing, you tend to overlook things that could be even better.  It's like when you have a favorite flavor of ice cream, and you only ever order that one flavor...because you know you love it.  You will still enjoy eating the ice cream, but you may miss a whole world of other choices, and you may never realize that you are slightly bored of only eating the same thing...because you don't know any different.

Now a spiritual reboot is kind of scary.  Clearing your slate and starting over can feel intimidating.  You have to face the demons of "Am I giving up?" and "Have I even made any progress?"  The thing about rebooting is that you often don't see the results until a long time after.

It reminds me a lot of getting a new phone, something I both look forward to and dread.  Every time we've gotten a new phone, I've gone into it with the expectation that I will have to do a full wipe.  I kind of forget that they can often transfer over things like phone numbers and contacts.  But even when it comes to apps and other settings, you have to start from the ground up, and often the things you relied upon just aren't there.

But, being forced to start from nothing means that all those things I rarely used...are just gone.  I don't have to choose to set them aside, they simply aren't there.  When I make a list of the apps I want to load to my new phone, I always notice that some just don't make the list.  I may never have deleted them off my old phone, but they won't be put on the new one.

The struggle is that sometimes the new system just doesn't let you do the things you want to.  I am continually surprised by how un-user friendly a lot of tech is...how many options that I feel are simple and basic, that just aren't offered.  Or how older devices give you more options, and your newer one just doesn't let you customize as much.

When you are faced with not having something you've always done as an option, it forces you to find a new way.  Sometimes this means settling or compromising with something that isn't quite as good...but eventually you get used to it.  It's like when your absolute favorite incense blend stops being produced, and now you have to find another one to use.  Sometimes you will find something better, but sometimes you will be stuck using something that you don't quite like...but eventually you get used to it.

We naturally enter times of reboot when huge changes happen in our life, but they aren't full reboots.  When you move house, you may not be able to keep the same number of altars.  This can mean you have to completely reboot your sacred spaces.  If you take a new job, with new hours, you may have to reboot your observances, especially if your new job isn't flexible in allowing you time off.  These can create havoc in your spiritual life in the short term as you scramble to adjust to a new paradigm.

The more you embrace the reboot, the easier it is to handle.  And the more practice you get with rebooting in general, the easier it will be for you to take that deep breath, to let go of the familiar, to hit the reset button and step into the void.  It will never be easy, it will never feel safe, but it will be less daunting when you truly realize that you can find a way to adapt to whatever you end up facing.

I'm not sure how my year of reboot will go, but I do know that it is necessary.  I need to shake things up, I need to start over, and I need to see where this will take me.  I encourage you to see if there are areas in your life that need a reboot, and to be brave and see what happens when you take that step off the cliff...without knowing what waits for you below!