Autophagy /ɔːˈtɒfədʒi/ noun
"The destruction of damaged or redundant cellular components."
The first week of 2024 is almost in the books - only 51 of them left. How have things started off? Maybe you have hit the ground running: that’s brilliant. Maybe (whether due to circumstances within or outside your control) you have gotten off to a slow start: not ideal, but far from the end of the world (or year). Regardless, here is some philosophy/biology to help you achieve the resolution you are seeking this year.
Autophagy is a biological process where your body eats old cells in order to create new ones - in essence, cell regeneration. This biological process perfectly highlights an existential truth: in order to be reborn, something has to die.
We move into each new year with the idea and intention of changing ourselves for one positive reason or another. The idea of changing ourselves, ‘starting anew’, has fresh, revitalising connotations. It sounds nice and clean. The reality however, is far from it.
In order to resolve, in order to rebirth, something has to die. And death 99 times out of 100 is a painful process. To achieve the rebirth you are seeking, you need to undergo a death, you need to kill something off. This is likely not going to be a pleasant and refreshing process.
If you are seeking a physical rebirth, this is going to require you literally and figuratively to burn off the fat. By engaging in physical exertion, you are going to have to kill the weak parts of your body, in order to build stronger ones. If you are seeking a mental rebirth, this is going to require you to engage in mental exertion to kill the negative thought patterns and habits, that are preventing you from achieving the clarity and positivity of mind you desire. If you are seeking a spiritual rebirth, this is going to require you to open up the emotional torture chest, and confront the traumas that are plaguing your being, in order to free your soul from them.
Whatever new product you are seeking, this can only be built by killing off the old, defective one. Change, resolution, rebirth, 99 times out of 100 is not a pleasant process, it is a painful one. Any expectation to the contrary, is setting you up to fail. Sometimes you have to burn the house down to get rid of the plague. Therefore in carrying out your resolutions, prepare for a harsh winter, before the fresh life that Spring bares begins to come to fruition.
All the best, let the autophagy commence.
Have a blessed Sunday.