Tag: balance

This Balance of Courage.

The ritual of our mindfulness practice teaches us patience. Though, even more so, it demonstrate the need for a ‘balanced hand’ – fairness within a building turmoil, equanimity where injustice refuses to bend.

As practitioners, we are encouraged to cultivate peace within our hearts; to lend softness against formerly immutable edges. Though, how do we accomplish when our path is uncertain? How do we offer light as our own diminishes?

Do we abandon the entirety of our principles for the one that feels threatened? Can you imagine our world had ideology conceded to gentle wavering?

There’d be no Rosa Parks, nor Mahatma Ghandi – the legacy of their journey forever lost, rescinded under the weight of a looming doubt. How might we be enriched were it not for their struggle?

If anything, our insights and our actions must go together. We must strive to create our bonds through shared understanding. And knowing, in the end, that “we are all just walking each other home.”

A lasting peace can not be realized through the absence of pain. Rather, it must be forged by way of opportunity and courage.

In peace…

Namaste ❣️

A Perfect Balance.

We have forgotten the legacy of our own humanity; a fundamental courage deeply rooted in the passage of trials before us.

And never, at first, quite as it seems – an obstacle with the intention to dissuade our course. Have we become so unwilling to accept the benefit of its service?

These stars above, and this universe as we know it – would not have been possible without the contrast of fire and ice; explosions amplified by the darkness of a greater unknown.

Beneath this armoring, our protective layer – the madness of chaos shifts and chases. And what we fear most? A perfect balance.

In peace, my sweet friends…

Namaste ❤️

In Perfect Balance.

This life is yours, my loves – and with it the power to influence your fate.

To reach beyond the vast complexity of knowing; to listen…to trust…to begin again.

Though the path ahead may lay wild with uncertain shadows, still the radiance of life will find its rightful place…watching over, guiding our way. As the trees stand as sentinels, ‘breathing life into bodies of earthly flesh’.

And closing our eyes to their whispered breath, we advance into the subtleties of shadow and light. Knowing only, where there is contrast- the forest will thrive.

Until, at once, it begins again – from seed to soil, in perfect balance.

In peace…

Namaste ❤

Discovering Our Voice Within.

“She withdrew onto herself,
First writing just for one,
Then touching thousands.
She incarnated ghosts, hurt, and joy
Into paper-and-ink stories of wonder.” – Deng Ming Dao

I’ve been feeling a little out of sorts lately; with body and mind settling into the abyss of ‘just slightly out of sync.’ It’s a desperate feeling, really – particularly for a writer who prides herself on being so intimately connected with her feelings.

And, so very distressing when it occurs, as it represents a dichotomy of monstrous proportions:

To hold onto the energy of the struggle, to live deliberately within it – that we ultimately become more aware of our ‘edges’,

or,

To release it immediately, that we may begin to slowly know the liberation of our pain.

With each, there is a choice, a unique path which only the soul may traverse. On one side, there is instantaneous relief – albeit, deceptively fleeting;

While farther off, over dusted trails and precarious terrain – there is this glimmering hope of awakening, and, the growing ember of possibility which may someday carry us forward.

Ironically, the choice is never easy, is it? Inevitably, we must acknowledge our willingness to stay – to reside in the uncertainty of the ‘what may happen next?’

How foolish we are to think it must be all or nothing. When, in fact, there must be room enough for both to grow. As, it is only through their contrast that we gain depth to our vision. The sharpness of jagged rocks, in time will yield to softer sands – but, only by way of the crashing waves.

This is the nature of our being – through ‘tortured’ heart we may begin to learn the true capacity of our human soul.

Each day we are presented with the callousness of our limits – intended to test, and hopefully, strengthen our resolve. But the road ahead is often littered with the scattered castings of doubt, forged by the insecurities we’ve held all these years.

To find the balance between the two ~ between the desperation of unknowing, and the thrill of unguarded discovery ~ my darlings, that is to have truly lived.

For somewhere in this balance we find our most authentic self – buried beneath the ashes of the fire which always burns.

And so, on this day, it is with gratitude, not trepidation, that I embrace these uncertainties… knowing that the true gift is somewhere in that ‘in between.’

My darlings, I write because I must – as it’s through these ‘oft jumbled words that I have discovered my voice within.

Finding Peace in Life’s Shakiness: Why Yoga is Good for Everyone.

“Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and perceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become. ”
~ Brooke Foss Westcott

I felt sick during my yoga practice the other day. Well, not so much sick, rather, perhaps …overwhelmed.

You see, I have a debilitating neurological disorder, one that causes me great pain—and, among other things, quite a bit of wobbling unsteadiness throughout my day. I was drawn to yoga, in part, to help alleviate the manifestation of these issues. But, perhaps more importantly, to help maintain a strong sense of ‘inner balance.’

Most of the time, I’m very much at peace with my body, understanding full well how limitations can lead often to our greatest introspection. But, on this night, I must admit, I was experiencing one heck of a spiritual challenge.

Today, I entered my practice with optimism, determined to find grace in my movement through the positions.

Oh, but that mirror—that stupid, full length, wall-to-wall mirror. There’s no hiding from one’s true reflection, is there?

And, as my body started to wobble, and my hands jittered out of control… my mind snickered,

“Oh yeah? And, just what do you think you’re doing here?”

My dears, the mind can be a fabulous partner on our spiritual journey. Likewise, it can often become our stinkiest, and most horribly competitive, of ‘friends.’ And tonight? My mind’s sharp words nearly shattered me.

I felt so out of place—like a stranger standing out in a far off land. How did this happen?

And, just like that, I started to cry.

My yoga teacher, without ever missing a beat, reached out to steady my hand and offer her ‘correction’ (Yoga teachers, I have learned, love correcting things—I swear they must’ve been elementary school teachers in a former life).

I thought maybe she was just being kind, trying to offer a little nudge of support. But, it turns out she was there for so much more.

Just then, she said something I will never forget—almost as if the universe was speaking through her.

I know…hippie weirdness. But, it’s true.

She said,

“I know you’re upset, but you have to keep pushing through. Turn off your brain, and just move. And, whatever you think you’re seeing as ‘weakness,’ is actually a testimony to your own personal strength.

For every moment you felt you couldn’t, but did anyway.

For every night you cried yourself to sleep, and yet still woke up with gratitude.

And for every instance you felt yourself lost, but helped someone else find their way…that is what all of this wobbling means.”

Amazing how just a few words delivered at just the right moment have the power to transform the fullest complexity of our being.

So, I think tonight I finally made friends with that silly old mirror—and in doing so, found peace inside the shakiest part of my soul.

You know, I used to think that Yoga was only for the strong, beautiful girls—with tightly toned bodies, and graceful, unencumbered movement.

But, now that I think of it, it’s more so for people like me.

Namaste and many blessings my friends—and may we always be open to these moments of hard-won introspection.

Finding the Balance Between Faith and Doubt.

[blockquote source=”Pema Chodron”]“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.”[/blockquote]

I was having such a difficult time writing these past few days, my mind immediately grasping to thoughts of, “Oh dear, what if this is the end?”

We writers are such a sensitive lot ~ always adding flourish where nothing further is truly needed.

I was terribly distressed, thinking I had lost this most precious gift – and one, that I had only just begun to discover.

Writing is my bliss, you see – and this earth, my inspiration. From the splash of berry through softened green, and hanging wisps of Wisteria trees ~ my writer’s mind is endlessly captivated by the millions of images this universe chooses to share with me.

And yet, over these past few days ~ this inspiration seems to have been ‘blocked.’

It can be quite troubling when things don’t go quite as we had anticipated. But, perhaps that’s the point – now, isn’t it? That we may be challenged to face our deepest doubts, in those moments when faith seems to have left us?

Doubt is inevitable, my dears – but the stories we attach? Those are always our choice. Oh, and aren’t we quick to attach those stories, my friends? After all, we’ve been saving them up all these years.

In my mind, I was finished for sure – and, had nearly packed away my ‘pencil case.’

But then, as I fumbled through my morning routine, I discovered the true source of my unsettledness:

I’ve been wearing my contact lenses in the wrong eye.

In my haste, I had them switched – left to right, and right to left….leaving my normally sharpened vision an absolute and utter mess.

Inspiration hadn’t left me, at all – I just couldn’t see it.

Such silliness, isn’t it? That in these fleeting instances of doubt, we begin to lose faith in ourselves? It challenges us, and forces us to question – all that we’ve ever known to be ‘right.’

But, that’s the balance – isn’t it? Great Faith and Great Doubt are at opposite ends of our “spiritual walking stick.” At Faith’s end, we grip with all our might – and at Doubt’s end, we forage through again.

It is this action that becomes our spiritual practice.

You see, our minds can become so conditioned to expectation – that we fail to see there is always something more.

In a sense, we become ‘blind’ to all that is before us.

Pema Chodron once said, “When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless, that it doesn’t have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.”

You see, Great Faith and Great Doubt very much need one another.

For, it’s within their tenuous balance you’ll find – the light that is so perfectly you.