The inside of my windshield somehow became noticeably dirty over the summer. It had a sort of patchy film that registered on a low level. It wasn’t great, but I could still see ok.

I’d especially notice it when I first got into the car. I’d think to myself: this needs to be cleaned. But soon I’d adjust, and I keep putting it off.

Often I’d run the windshield wipers, which gave the temporary sense of clearing the slate on some level. Dust definitely accumulates with great frequency on the exterior of a car in Albuquerque.

The whole interior of the car actually needed a little attention. Plenty of dust in there too. So one day I grabbed some cleaner and a soft cloth and gave the whole dashboard, control panel, console, etc. a proper cleaning. I spent plenty of time on the interior of the windshield. It really did need it. 

Of course, the effect was noticeable, satisfying, and transformative. The view was immediately brighter. There was a whole new level of clarity. Delightful, and quite a relief. 

We can often be aware of some low-level disruption to the normal, smooth functioning within our systems. It might bug us a little from time to time, but we have an incredibly complex system for filtering input. Of the hundreds of billions of bits of information our brain is taking in at any given moment, each of us has a sort of programming in place that directs our attention and shapes our awareness so that we only register a certain percentage of that deluge of input. This sliver of information is what makes it into our “conscious awareness.”

Though it’s a topic for another post, that programming is most certainly malleable. It takes a dedicated effort, and a cooperation of mind, body and spirit. But, incredibly, we essentially only see what we have a framework to understand and believe. We’d like to think that we see objectively all that is in front of us. But our subconscious programming truly dictates the patterns we “see.” Vision, in fact, is a function that actually takes place in the brain ~ not in the eyes. And it’s a complex place in there, with ample room for interpretation, and even preference.

As with the film on the interior of the windshield, we tend to grow accustomed to things as they are. Through a physiological process called “adaptation,” we are essentially less affected by stimuli the more we’re exposed to them. This is why jumping in a cold pool gives an initial shock, but we soon adjust to the temperature. It’s why we are often not aware of the unique smells in our own home as much as someone who has just walked in. Or we might grow accustomed to a background hum of a generator, traffic, or the barking of neighborhood dogs.

We do register every piece of information that comes in, both from our internal and external environments, despite not being consciously aware of it all. Much of the stimuli coming from our internal world comes in below the radar of our active awareness, but it’s certainly coming in. Focusing on our internal organs, in fact, automatically increases feedback and strengthens neural connections to those areas.

There’s a saying in Ayurveda that “where attention goes, prana flows.” This means that whatever we choose to focus on will be infused with life force and grow. Through the observer effect, quantum physics confirms the same fundamental concept: we increase energy wherever we place our focus.

What do you want to see increase in your life? What do you want to diminish? The simple act of directing awareness goes a long way to help us build pathways to the outcomes we desire. A simple way of applying this is to focus on the breath. If you are feeling a lack of spaciousness in your life, your space, your schedule, try focusing for a minute or two on the space inside your lungs. With each inhale, envision yourself creating just a little more space inside your lungs. With each exhale, empty your lungs out just a little more. The space you crave is, in fact, within you. Focusing on the space you can create creates an entirely different outcome than focusing on all the space you don’t have. 

We grow accustomed to certain environmental realities ~ both inner and outer. We may even convince ourselves that it’s “normal” to feel a certain degree of discomfort and distress. And certain external fixes (running the windshield wipers to clear what’s on the surface) may indeed help us to feel a small shift that provides a temporarily boost. 

But there’s only so long that we can go before this low-level interference begins to actually get in the way. That’s when we start registering more urgent messages that are less easy to ignore.

We can actually learn to tune into the smaller cues and make accommodations (i.e.: do some regular, light inner cleaning) before the signals build up and disrupt our functioning in significant ways. 

Ultimately, there’s only one way to address our discomfort: low-level or otherwise. It’s an inside job. It doesn’t replace the need to maintain the external. But we can’t get away with cleaning the outside time after time and neglecting what needs clearing within. 

A cleanse is a means to wiping that inner slate, removing the accumulation ~ subtle or otherwise ~ that is obscuring our own clarity and radiance. With so much else to focus on, and so often with inherited, limiting beliefs about the level of health that is even possible, we can all too often normalize and adjust to the input that is reporting in some way that things are not quite right. 

But when we clear space within, allowing ourselves to catch up and process the back-log, we can improve functioning at the cellular level. We can restore our natural intelligence, which impacts how we think, feel and act ~ even what we crave.

Through cleansing, we actually lighten the load on our systems. We can then repair, regenerate, and discover that there is a lot more clarity out there than we’d led ourselves to believe. Our horizons change as our inner world is allowed to radiate with the light it always contained. And a new path is illuminated. We see, feel and believe in a new set of possibilities. 

Join me this September for a guided seasonal cleanse to clear your windows from the inside out. We start on Monday, September 18th.

Discover the brilliance that was waiting inside you all along.