To Fix or not to Fix?

In this six-minute session of stillness, the speaker discusses the idea that we often feel the need to fix things in our lives, such as broken relationships or past mistakes. However, this focus on fixing can block our progress. The speaker suggests that instead of trying to fix what went wrong, we should acknowledge the situation and choose what we want instead. Just like with a batch of burnt biscuits, we can't fix the outcome, but we can learn from it and start again with a new focus. The speaker encourages us to stop wasting effort on fixing and instead put our energy into creating the end result we desire. Fixing is a choice, and we can choose to move forward with joy and love. Welcome to six minutes of stillness. You'll notice that there's no images. Why? Because actually in stillness and simply listening, we're able to create images and experience observations more clearly than we would if we had visual cues. After all, what something means to you is completely unique to you. In our time together today, I wanted to explore the issue, the challenge of fixing things. How often in our daily life do we go about wanting to fix broken relationships, find a way to make up for things in the past? And we put so much effort into it. It blocks our progress. I'll do this once I've fixed that situation. I'll explore new opportunities once I've resolved the problems. I'll do this when I've done that. Notice the fixing. Notice how we're programmed to need to have done something before we can hope for something else. Just for a moment, imagine. Imagine that you've decided to bake something or make something. Baking's a good example. And you've created, got all the ingredients and you've followed the recipe and you've baked them and they've come out and somewhere along the line an ingredient was missed out perhaps. They were baked for too long. And you end up with a tray of biscuits that are totally inedible. I mean, they are yuck, they are disgusting. What do you do? You see, in another scenario in our lives, you'd be going, oh, I need to fix it. And we'd be guilt-tripping and shaming ourselves for the wrong that we've done. But let your life be represented by those biscuits. Honestly, can you really fix it? No, you can't. Does that mean you can't ever move forward? No, it doesn't. What it means is simply that something didn't go quite to plan. The result was not as you chose it to be or had hoped it to be. And that just is. We can't turn back the clock on anything. We can't go back to that time. And pouring energy into going back and trying to fix is a fool's errand. So what can we do? Take ownership. Take ownership of the situation that something has gone wrong, the outcome was not as you had hoped, and from there, choose what it is that you do want. Choose what it is that you would like instead and put your focus into that. If it were another batch of biscuits, you'd probably pay attention to the bits that didn't work or the ingredients that weren't right for it or the timing that was just not quite right. And with that knowledge and that focus, you begin again. Because that's all we can do. We can't fix. We can just choose the end result we want and move forward with knowledge and understanding and learnings from the past. So as you carry on in your day to day, notice. Notice when you are needing to fix things or wanting or choosing to fix things and remind yourself of the tray of biscuits that got burnt. And stop wasting all the effort on the fixing. Just acknowledge what it is. Look for what happened and preceded it happening. And from there, choose the end result you want and put your joy and love and focus into creating that. Do you really ever need to fix anything? Can you ever fix anything? Will you ever try to be repairing or fixing things? It's a choice.