Each day is unpredictable. Time is twisting. Some days I feel fired up and inspired by my desires and projects. Before I know, I am slammed with grief, both universal and personal. Sensitive to the strong emotions flying around, I struggle to focus, or to do more than sleep and go for walks. I can feel myself being pulled in so many directions.
I’m reminding myself a lot lately that this pandemic is really hard for humans, but perhaps quite a blessing for Earth. Our human world relates catastrophe to how it effects us. The world is so much more. This is not to downplay the hardship, but to open up my perspective beyond politics and my screaming activist heart. Humans are undergoing a major lesson and a major shift in consciousness, that will last far beyond the health crisis.
May this be a time that all souls learn lessons and go forward to create something new, rather than go back to the old ways. The old constructs are falling, and we can rise to nature what we are wanting next. We are being forced to look inward and ask what we are really doing with our lives. This introspection can feel traumatic, especially if we have been able to distract ourselves with life’s routines, habits, and what we took for granted.
My friend reminded me that even though I care and feel so much, that what I am doing here is far beyond politics. That healing isn’t about understanding meaning, or figuring anything out. Western culture is so caught in knowing, and ironically that focus can keep us blind to the lessons. Healing is about bringing light and balance to the parts of us in need. It is about expanding our beliefs of what is possible. We can be a light even if we are surrounded by darkness. We can be compassionate without making their pain our own.
Orienting myself this way has really helped me get more excited about my own path, and less worried about what it should all look like. There is no way to know. The entire world is flying by the seat of their pants, and in that, we find solidarity.
The magnetic field of our heart, that is in constant conversation with the center of our being.
Our lungs and heart center being affected says something about where the spiritual aspects of this virus exist, and which parts of us our vulnerable. It is essentially this energy center of the body that is begging for care. Move your arms, and stretch your chest open in all dimensions so be able to hold more than just the fear and anxiety of our own vulnerability. Thump your fist over your chest to awaken this center of breath and compassion.
How ironic that in a great wake up call to come together, we are being told to isolate. How does it feel to distance ourselves by force rather than the usual way of our privileged independence? We are already sick from lack of tactile intimacy, and now we are even more afraid of physical connection. Disease feeds on paranoia and fear. Relaxation boosts the immune system. How safe do you feel when you exchange a loving embrace?
Who is actually going to be ok and who is just going to have a burnt ego?
This grand wake up call exposes the fragility of our financial systems and the massive holes in our government’s readiness (and willingness) to care for our people. Is this what it takes to not ignore the incredible gap between those who are eligible for government protections and services and who is not? as though eligibility means anything…
This cosmic wake up call highlights our priorities and self versus other, mine versus theirs, fault versus responsibility. Heaven forbid the rich world fall victim to such a tragedy, and heaven forbid our protectors do not actually have our best interests at heart. Why are we so concerned with the stock market as though it is a truthful representations of what people’s lives are like?
As things shut down, how are we choosing to slow down and consume less? For the wealthy and stable, this is a luxurious chance to simplify. For many it is a scramble in the face of their disenfranchisement. For all it begs the question of what we are doing here for ourselves and for each other.
What does immunity actually mean?
Who feels like they have choice and who is dependent? Who hands over their life to fear and institutional power? Who do we put our trust in? How do we collectively rise rather than crumble in the contractive force of fear and chaos? Are we willing to be both soft and strong as we commit to justice and balance?
The illumination of the heart expands with love and compassion. May this corona of light be what sets the world on fire.
Imagine you loved yourself So fiercely that you were dangerous To all the darkness clawing at you To believe you were not worthy? How different would your every moment be?
How would you feed yourself life? Would pleasure become a deep dive Into soul purpose rather than shameful indulgence To escape the reality of delusions We create with scarcity and fear?
How would you bathe yourself Acknowledging your skin coming in contact With your very of skin, Removing the debris that may have collected From days and years and lifetimes Of living on this Earth-plane?
What if every cell of you knew It was completely supported and Accepted in its very existence? How would you say yes and say no To the events that come your way As opportunities and lessons To fall more deeply in alignment with Your very own journey of now?
Would time be less threatening and more magical? Even if you were speeding along, Speed did not mean rush and Hurry did not mean worry, For you knew Love had your back.
I believe your gaze would be soft And your intuition sharp, You would think less and feel far more Than you ever imagined possible. Yes, you would have the courage to be vulnerable Because you knew it was meant for you.
This May I was so fortunate to acquaint myself with Scotland. The land reenforced by mission to align with the spirit of this magical planet. The rugged hills, craggy cliffs, tender wildflowers and countless lakes make the entire country one big national park. But this is all just Earth, yet modern life creates distinctions between what types of land and life belong where and how to label them. In Scotland, I did not feel such boundaries. I was traveling through an unmanicured continuum of earthly wonder. Even in cities and neighborhoods, humans upheld the wildness of nature. It seemed they were not threatened by the spirit of life. Their yards we cared for with intension and detail, however, they exemplified coexistence. Without micromanaging, what already grew was allowed to be and thrive.
Man often talks of nature as something he discovered rather than what created him. Something that needs to be supervised or else she will extend beyond our control, just as all free women do. Truth be told, the world does not need to be put in order. She IS in order and it is up to humans to put ourselves in unison with that order. Earth consciousness is far greater than any will of man.
Isle of Skye
Fairy Glen
“I like nature,” is such a strange identification, but one you hear a lot today, for it is en vogue to take trips to REI and sport your gear for your next social media occasion. I believe it is actually an unconscious yearning to rediscover our roots, but only knowing how through a capitalist lens. In any case, we have come to a digital age in which we feel the need to name that distinction. Earthlings, we have been flattened by the three-dimensionality of intellectual modern life, denying ourselves of what we are.
Humans have long been taking the approach that Earth is our mother. No matter how many stupid things we do, she is there to give us more water, food, air, and more love…love that we do not even know is love because it is so essential to the cellular make up of our being. So essential that we cannot even differentiate it from our very existence. She is the estranged, abused, neglected mother that tolerates, adjusts, and gives far beyond what keeps her well, to say, “I believe in you. I trust that you can return to your truth, and even if you don’t, let me hold you.”
Family Tenderness
Came for the castle, stayed for the coos…
I invite you to take a different perspective, where Earth is not our mother, but our lover. One we hold with ultimate gratitude and appreciation every single day, whom we would never dare harm. One we help heal and help give birth to more and more life. We are excited to collaborate with her such that we both grow brighter. A lover we stand by even when she rages and weeps. We understand that upsets are a call for respectful, compassionate attention rather than fearful threats. We are willing to get dirty. The lover we hold sacred for impregnating us with life, abundance and sensation far beyond any mindscape. The lover we yearn to dig our hands into, stroke, lick, to rest against, and gaze into with awe, for all eternity.
I do believe this is the way to trust life again and the way to deep peace. To be in love with the wholeness woven from infinite complexity. I will not take for granted all the gifts from my eternal lover, and I will do everything within me to know the abundance we have within us, and the support we have from her.
The Heart is the seat of the Soul. Both surrounded by all other aspects of you, and infused into all other aspects of you. Guided by the white light of the Universe and supported by the energy of this Earth.
There are so many reasons, especially from our earliest days, why we are unable to fully love ourselves. We enter this world completely vulnerable and helpless, and also so psychically awake. Without boundaries, we take on guilt and shame for things happening in our environment, and from this we subconsciously form our self-image. We create a hard shell for survival. If we continue to hide in it later in life, it is ultimately self-defeating. We are blocked from a mysterious, full life of intimacy and sensation. How do we juggle receptivity and assertiveness, connection and isolation, familiar and unknown?
Asking for support not only takes courage, it requires emotional honesty. Furthermore, managing your own impulses and responding to others’ emotional needs is a complex task. “We all have empathy, but we often don’t have enough courage to display it,” (Maya Angelou) for it is not only difficult to show up for someone who is struggling, but because it opens us up to our own pain. Yet, we do not need to relate to be able to support one another. I wish that we are kind to each other, and that we witness ourselves in new ways, for we are all still learning how to be humans on this Earth.
Exploring the countless in-between places that are needing attention and care. My friend was inspired to highlight the lines of energy that came from this practice.
How can I be kind to myself today? Emotional maturity asks I find balance Between my petulant inner child and stern adult. Vulnerability and Strength are not strangers, Nor opposites, but equals.
When wounds open, red heart-juice gushes in To say, “I matter. I am supported.” Those scabs you continue to pick Keep your world small. When you love yourself, Your world continues to expand.
The “outside” may be demanding a lot, But it is only a test of how much I love myself. You can’t keep neglecting yourself. Life is always expecting more of us, May you not be intimidated to give more.
You have been giving and giving, Heart so big and it is time To turn it back to your own precious self. This selfishness is not about pleasure or greed, But about loving up on yourself again and again, For the sake of no one else.
Receive more than you need without throttling it. Let it lead toward your highest good, For you are worthy of abundance. You are Abundance. Spirit does not judge you for living in your light.
This is the place where I feel completely supported and free to be my full and vibrant self.
OK…so a little poetry? Maybe? I dunno, I have never done this.
The last couple months have been incredibly dense, having several unexpected shifts with very intimate aspects of my life. With this so, I’m choosing a different writing format, one in which I don’t use more words than needed to connect ideas. Enjoy…
When you feel you have lost so much, the Universe has a way of returning to you the most important parts, and you realize these are enough.
Abundance remains.
Scraping away the extra, becoming aware of all the debris and the bottomless, condition-less love you knew you had, but didn’t really know you have.
Grief swallows you, and you recognize your tremendous capacity for love, thus there is no room for fear to exist. The intellect has disengaged, and what remains is sensation, allowing, and grace.
I feel no boundaries of bodily flesh between myself and the rest of what is here. Oozing heart-being floating in the sunshine, birds singing and deep Earth keeping me safe.
Heart heavy because she holds so so much, is a reminder that we are beyond full, bursting with emotions, rather than empty with loss or lostness.
Greif is laudation, as it is the essential way love honors what it misses.
Many say that hate is the opposite of love, but it is fear that is truly the lowest vibration, the absence of light.
We live too often with our hearts protected, our thoughts monitored behind a wall of reserve, convinced that connection may lead to disaster.
So we posture, role play, and judge, appearing to be assembled and yet we are not connected. We cling in dimness.
Love, unlike fear, builds confidence. When you give your love to someone it changes your life, and the lives of others completely.
Simply smile at the stranger and connect in a way that makes you feel like you have shared a secret. You have shared your light.
When you allow yourself to be visible, filaments of connection ignite as affirmations of belonging. As your connection to this Earthlife grows, your light will have no choice but to illuminate what you see and what sees you.
There was never meant to be the question of whether or not you are lovable You already are.
I was practicing yoga on the deck today (one of many reasons I will never complain about being a grown-ass woman living with my parents: private home/yard surrounded by nature where the continuous sound of birds overrides the sound of traffic) and I had one of those common sense epiphanies. Always love those. And me being me, I got super meta about it. I was simply re-centering myself in Tadasana, the blueprint of all poses (aka standing in anatomical neutral). Just as I noticed tension in my low back I was guided by the words: “Just come back into alignment to avoid injury.” As I scooped my tail and relaxed my lower ribs, my back calmed.
Good advice, I’d say. Proper alignment it crucial to injury prevention. I’ve been practicing alignment-based yoga for years and have loved getting technical and geeking out about body mechanics and how they effect our non-physical layers. I also have a long history of chronic injuries, and I sense that a part of my fascination with alignment has to do with avoiding pain. The truth is that with my ultra sensitive nature I end up feeling pain after most of my practices. I have a tendency to look at this in two ways:
1. My injuries run deep enough that they will never heal.
2. I failed at alignment and that’s why I am in pain…I STILLLLLL need to work on boundaries. Typical.
Neither are very positive… At this particular moment I realized I have been approaching alignment as a form of protection, and have been ignoring the overall essence of what alignment is: It is what allows for all things to manifest. It is the foundation for us to reach out and create the pose of our choice with integrity and wisdom. It is what keeps us balanced and centered so that we can reach and stretch and explore sensations that keep us engaged and curious about living. It is the framework for feeling, rather than just doing and thinking. Form means nothing, can provide no nourishment when the alignment is not there. You can take any position you want, and it will not transform you unless you are holding yourself in such a way that allows energy to flow smoothly. Lack of integrity is what makes us scattered, compressed or unreceptive.
I will say that I have excellent form and integrity. Yet, I often “reach”because I should, and not as an authentic result of energy flow. It is interesting that my injuries keep nagging, while I keep nagging myself, to uphold structure and safety, and let possibility and potential stay on the back burner. I bet you will be surprised (not…ha!) to hear that I have lived my entire life playing it safe, and now I want to explore what alignment can do for my spirit, or rather how my spirit will guide me when I am in alignment, and can access the sweet space of expansion and freedom. (How exciting and scary!!!) We cannot make such things happen by fighting. I must not punish myself for having imbalanced flesh. It is only trying to communicate what I do not yet know how to care for.
We cannot assume that time is what determines the outcome. Time means nothing when our actions and intentions do not support our desires. Time is what happens in our minds while we learn how to live in harmony, and thus for dreams to enter reality. When things don’t manifest we often assume or worry that they never will, and that they are not meant to be (the job, the vacation, the love, the healing etc). This may not be so, for things will only manifest when they are meant to, which is when your intentions and your actions are aligned with what you seek. Things can happen, shift, transform, manifest immediately if we are ready. We can can learn in an instant if we are open to it, and if we can handle the shift it will create in us.
This is not to say that I expect to accelerate through all my lessons, and quickly reclaim my status as back-bending queen. Not at all. I don’t even know if that would serve me. (As long as I can do Mermaid Pose and embody my Disney childhood I’m happy.) However, I do claim a new intention and a renewed relationship with alignment on and off the mat. That is to play in the realm of what is possible and what I am wanting, rather than containing myself for the sake of wishfully imagined safety.
I’m pretty fed up with the masculine mass consciousness that tells us that in order to evolve we need challenge, pain, discomfort, and suffering. Sure, all those experiences can be perfect learning tools, helping us discover boundaries, survive life’s bumps, and climb out of pits of doom. Let me just say that i’m writing this cuz I’m terrible at practicing this. Ok not terrible, but I’m definitely a slow learner here, and still feel pulled toward anything that would make me feel like a conventional badass rather than self-assured outcast.
No more work needed here. The mountain has been climbed.
Sure, in struggling the intention is to become aware of your disillusionment, and wiser as a result. But, the design of the soul is not to be stuck in suffering. You aren’t destined for darkness or heaviness. We must not think that ease is empty of wisdom, that there is no growth in a period of peace. Your energies want to play and explore and expand, and they can do so when they feel free. Freedom is the result of peace and ease. In choice-making, path-carving, and soul-searching, the way that creates the most peace and ease is always for your highest good. It is a way of powerful transformation and expansion.
I’m not talking about that fluffy high ya’ll get post spa-treatment during which you spend your entire time on pintrist fantasizing about your best life, or the care-free “YOLO” lifestyle, or the lazy “I’m just going to ignore all my responsibilities and not care” sort of ease….that shit doesn’t last, and it often is our way of feeding our preexisting imbalances. It doesn’t even penetrate us. It lives on the surface. I’m talking about the deep sense of ease you get when your soul can truly rest confidently in it’s ability to take care of yourself. The type of peace that allows your cells to breath your entire body in alignment with your higher self. Sometimes the path is still really fricking hard, but you know you are creating a life that is authentic to you. And that is what makes all other struggle bearable. This is not just a matter of softness, but of immense strength.
Trying to cultivate some ease of being in the Apple store, awaiting the Genius Bar, ending up being that weirdo in the corner that probably has the employees calling security.
Imagine how much free creative energy you would have if you were not in conflict. Most of us probably can’t even imagine that because we are so far removed from such way. Imagine how empowered you would feel if you weren’t stressing the fuck out all the time. You could use your creative energy for so many live-giving things that you can’t even imagine yet. Imagine you are in a bubble, and the hand of stress comes along and crushes that bubble right up against your body, so close that anything that moves could pop it. Now imagine your bubble extends beyond the walls of the room you’re in. Your awareness can extend beyond what is right in front of you and you forget about the 1/6,348,428 chance that a bear is going to attack you at any moment. (How could you ever grow when you are constantly worrying about the bear?!) WOW! Now, from this perspective, what do you want to do with you life? I imagine it isn’t quite the same as the crumpled up bubble prison.
But, alas, we are taught that growth is only made when we do what is hard, or something we don’t actually want, because we need to learn “discipline,” “respect,” “duty,” “selfless service,” and that basically we don’t actually deserve all that we have ever wanted and more. This is bullshit. It all creates noise and disease that cuts you off from your life force and purpose, which is to be a soul and expand. You deserve it all, and you can take full ownership of the internal peace you maintain in your life. The overall concept can be that simple, but of course it is hard to practice this when we’re trained to do the opposite. We have so much information trying to confuse us and convince us we don’t know what’s best for us.
We are in such a strange time….our lives are overflowing with imposed responsibilities and our intellects are bombarded with information that we can’t even process our days, or even say hello to our tender hearts, our true guides. I will propose that creating ease in our lives is more simple than we assume. We already know what would make us feel more human again. We already sense what we want, even if our intellect tries to stomp it out. Fundamentally ease is simple, even if it isn’t easy. Our lives aren’t simple, and maybe that is just a matter of our thought patterns. How have we strayed? How do we return? When we listen, the message is clear, and when we have clarity, we understand that our desires are simple. When we allow our hearts to guide us, the internal world no longer has to fight with the external world.
Hoping to sooth my soul amid trees, and end up start stressing cuz I’ve never assembled a propane stove.
My practices that quiet the conversation with stress include:
long walks
being in nature
doing less
gazing into the distance
slowing down
saying no
giving myself permission to feel what I feel
Please share ways in which you already do or wish to create ease and peace in your life, be it a simple daily task, or a larger undertaking. Thanks for reading 🙂
I’ve been hiking more lately not just because I feel at home in nature, but because I’m developing a fantasy (or waking up to my own truth….take your pick) of being a long-distance trekker. I realize I could totally make this happen if I believe in myself. While I am sooo antsy to pick up and seek adventure and connection, these days soften me, and remind me that I live in one of the most beautiful and most healing lands on Earth. Don’t let the lofty title of this post fool you…What follows is a bunch of stuff that came up for me on the trail today. Hopefully you find my quirkiness entertaining, or perhaps even consoling.
This is why all the gray skies are worth it.
I still have cell reception. I should turn my phone on airplane mode. I don’t need to be “connected” while I’m here. But what if my dog dies while I’m gone and Mom needs to call me? Ok, I’m definitely keeping my phone on, but only to tell time and snap a below-average number of pictures.
These sunglasses make me look like John Lennon, and that’s probably not very attractive. Why am I trying to look hot while I’m hiking? I can’t stand those people. I do have a subtle sheen of zinc oxide on my face, so perhaps it is best for me to keep the sunnies on.
I wish this hike was longer because then I would feel like a badass. Maybe I can find a way to extend it. I have to work up to trekking distance status. BUT I’m also glad it’s not super long because I’m kind of anxious to get home, even though I have nothing to do there besides kick it with my parents and submit my weekly unemployment claim.
If I keep up these hikes, between them and riding my bike, my legs are going to be BEEFY come summertime.
Everyone smells like fucking fabric softener. I give up. Why do people associate “clean” with the scent of chemicals? I came out here to sniff dirt and evergreens. AND another 25% reek of perfume… REALLY?! Why are you out here?! I love that you choosing to be active and in nature, but you and the people carrying travel speakers can all go back to the mall and hang out. Please.
I bet all these people I’m passing listen to top 40 hits. What a horrible thing to say. I’m so judgmental (and a hypocrite). I listen to top 40 on the radio…cuz I don’t know how to search or download any cool music …so I can shut up right now.
View from Rattlesnake Ledge
Overlooking North Bend
There are a lot of very small children on this trail…And some folks who would technically pass as senior citizens. Is my body so bent out of shape that these are my workout partners? (No.) Or is it just my ego that is so bend out of shape to even care? (Perhaps slightly.)
Don’t stare at hot daddies. Don’t stare at hot daddies and their super cute families. If you can’t help it, at least smile at their wives and you can try to pet their dog if it seems appropriate. The exception to this is that one hot daddy that smiled at you first…He had two kids, zero wives, and zero rings.
So if I were doing my thing as a trekker, how would I feel about resourcefully gathering, filtering, and sanitizing my own water? (I have the spirit and the physical capacity, but I have some practical wisdom to pick up on). With years of chronic health issues, I’ve been known to contract all sorts of viruses, bacteria, and other bugs, so why would I knowingly subject myself to more of that? Maybe being in nature on my own would heal some soul wound and make all my health problems go away. If not, I suppose I have endured five straight weeks of explosive diarrhea, the first 10 days of which were a solo road trip. So I suppose I could handle what comes my way. Besides, having diarrhea on trail has to be a lot more convenient that in a sedan that has to pull off the road at any given time, hoping to find a gas station without having a (traffic) accident. Our hips were designed for squatting and there is a lot more privacy in the forest.
Unemployment generally has me free seven days a week, so why do I keep hiking on Saturdays and Sundays when everyone else is stinking up the trails and parking lots? Not that I’m antisocial…I am an introvert and YES I did notice I am the only one out here hiking solo, but that’s because I am a silence seeker…not because I’m a loner. I mean, I DID come out here to be alone. What have I really done with my life the last six months? STOP thinking that way, Katrina…You are on a soul journey you can’t measure.
Which way is up. Does it really matter?
The tops looks like roots!
Exposing the life beneath the surface.
I’m really sure-footed walking on uneven ground…I’ve gotta remember that metaphorically spiritual awakening.
Maybe I could make a living by writing silly blog posts like this. I’m a recovering over-thinker and writing this is kind of like word vomit and it feels pretty good. My intellect isn’t getting the best of me. Maybe I could make a living from being funny rather than being a hella woke spiritual warrior like in that other dream I’ve been having. Humor is healing. I would have to find a way to be funny in private…like online or something so I don’t have to be super social…That would drain me. I could start carrying my laptop around everywhere so that I can write these thoughts down on the fly. There’s probably and app for that but I’m not to into the whole app thing.
If I stare at the river rapids for a while, and then quickly shift my gaze to rocks, the lands appears to be oozing and shifting…What really is still and what is in motion? What are our eyes telling us? How are we using our vision? Maybe my eye chakras are opening.
I’m going to sit on a rock down by the river and be super mindful. Brilliant ideas are going to come to me. I think I’ll write my next blog post about all the great ideas that came to me o this hike.
I’m going to be so ready for my beef stew when I get back to the car.
If I count those plantain chips I ate earlier as my daily fruit, then I don’t have to eat the tangerines I packed. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK…so obviously I still have some anorexic tendencies lurking inside me…
Good thing I sat on that rock. It really set a good tone.
Twin Falls
Roots
I love touching moss. These forests are so textural. What a fucking beautiful place we live. The light is perfect.
I’m definitely going to listen to Bruce Springsteen on the way home. Then I can pretend that this adventure is a lot grander than just 45 miles from home. I’m almost 29…I should be globetrotting by now.
DUDE. Have some grace on yourself. No wonder you have hesitations about manifesting your hippy dreams. You are anything but a wimp. What you have gone through with your health has exposed how next-level badass you really are. You’ve needed these years of societal reliance. No one wants to feel like crap in the comfort of their own home, let alone in the wilderness.
I just pulled off to let about 12 people pass and not ONE acknowledged my existence. How Seattle of them.
If I saw these views in another country I would think they were spectacular, but they are basically just in my backyard so they’re not that exciting…WOW I’m such an ungrateful piece of shit.
Great! Time for my stew. I’m eating right under a major power line. Is that the EMFs making my legs tingle? Oh wait…No, I just sat in a field of red ants. Sweet.
I can’t believe I didn’t pee on that entire hike. That’s unheard of. I suppose I should do a compulsory squat behind the car before the drive home.
In today’s westernized hot bod yoga workout craze, how many times have you heard the phrases:
I want to find balance in my life…
If only I could create a work-life balance…
Move from your core!
Engage your core!
Ok don’t literally try to count. These concepts are all over the place. Capitalism has taken hold of yet another thing that cannot be generalized or materialized and has given it a name and face, and convinced us that we need it and that we don’t have the capacity to create it within ourselves. Everything society feeds us throws us into extremes, and then we come crawling back, desperate for a remedy (temporary if that), remaining trapped without examples of what true, real-life balance looks like. We are told that the more we do, the more we get. Maybe if we made it to a couple classes and chanted a few “Oms” then we would feel better, or even be on the cover of Yoga Journal! The truth I believe I that when you do the optimal amount, you get the best.
Being that EVERYTHING on my natal chart lives entirely on one side, I obviously have no innate sense of what balance is for me. Besides that, I’m an earth sign surrounded by two water signs, which means my need for stability is often thrown on some wild rides. SWEET. I mean, I may have some intellectual sense of what balance is, but when it comes to actually creating it for myself….well that’s just funny. I may seem all centered and stuff, but trust me, I am working HARD because all of my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual tendencies work to scatter me. That’s great, cuz it makes me highly curious and versatile, but ultimately it can be exhausting and debilitating, especially within modern culture. Thus, I now announce that I have dedicated my life to exploring what balance feels like for me. So, because I have no natural capacity for balance, I have become quite the expert in my experimental self-inquiry.
Of course we want to be proactive in creating balance and harmony in our lives. Balance begets health and we all want health. Health is NORMAL. It is the middle between too much and too little. We know deep within us the familiar place of peace, yet we accept a life that works in the opposite direction. Health and disease are two sides of the same coin. Disease is a deviation of the normal balance. It isn’t a different thing. Thus, healing from dis-ease requires more than just waging war on our imbalances, but to reinstate the natural balance. This natural state of being may not be in your conscious memory and it may seem so far away that you may not even know what feeling you are seeking. Keep listening. Patiently. Compassionately. Consider how long you have been doing things the “other” way….habit evolution takes tiiiiiime.
Balance does not eliminate challenges or highlights. But it does work to keep you centered in yourself as you face exciting circumstances. Being centered does not imply being settled. You can be centered in who you are and what you are doing, and still desire more of what the world has to offer. Enjoy all the contrast that exists on this magnificent planet.
The thing is, since you are always shifting, growing, moving, changing, your ideal balance does the same. Take it moment by moment to eventually see the shape of your own balance curve. Every moment you are shifting from pose to pose, your center of gravity shifts as well.
This brings me to the second buzzword: core.
There is a lot of talk these days about moving from your core…engaging your core, for it is a place to engage, contract, and tighten to become strong. with this approach, our preciously reliable core becomes this condensed point. To remain integrated and balanced, we need our cores to radiate through our entire body, fluffy, radiant and full, not sucked in and flattened. Your center of gravity moves as you do. Allow your core to shape-shift with you as well. Don’t expect the center of your being to stay in one place. That is not what it was meant to do. Balance is a moving target, not a fixed place. Get used to being a work in progress.
Katrina Freitag 