Blank Slate

Tabula rasa. Noun.

/ˈˌtäb(y)o͝olə ˈräzə/

“An absence of predetermined ideas…a blank slate.”

I remember first hearing the phrase ‘tabula rasa’ as an adolescent—and I loved it! My very own blank slate! So clean. So fresh. So unwritten. So full of possibility. So unknown! So potentially surprising! You know what? I’m still that girl.

What would it be like to embrace your own tabula rasa in 2022? To see 2022 as your very own blank slate—your own uncharted territory? To see 2022 through eyes of childlike wonder? Imagine a bright red Etch-A-Sketch (remember those?)—that you turn upside down, and shake. You turn it back over and it’s clean and blank! Life CAN feel this way (even with our commitments and structural realities.) Embracing a ‘tabula rasa’ mindset is a bit like having our own magic wand. That’s the tabula rasa effect. It’s like a fresh breeze blowing in.

To get you started, here five tips for tabularasaing (OK, I made that up) your life:

1)    Remember that while much is real, nothing is fully known. Notice how liberating that is!

2)    Surprise yourself.

3)    Do something differently. Anything! (This takes first noticing your patterns. We’re often pretty unconscious about how we roll.) Take a new route. Get dressed differently. Use a different hand or tool. Stroll faster, or more slowly. Be a “traveler” in your own hometown. Savor a new flavor. Interrupt your usual rhythms. Habits are just that. We can undo them. Just. Like. That.

4)    Put on childlike-wonder. Fool around. Play more! A LOT more! (We grown-ups often take ourselves SO seriously.) Entertain your “I wonder what would happen if I______(fill in the blank)?” self. Be a kid in a candy shop. It’s your sweet life, after all. Then, see what happens!

5)    Realize that everything is “in play.” Nothing is in stone. Really, nothing! How cool is that? Live as if you believed that was true. Because it is.

Notice the juju and life-force rising in you. Cool! Become even more fascinated with yourself.  It’s your slate, after all. See what’s there. Be the author of it.

This day is yours.  Your slate is blank until further notice. Make it good. Make it juicy. Make it memorable. Make it worthy of this life.