I won’t lie to you.

It’s been a big, hard week.

I have found myself being asked repeatedly to integrate, rise up, and to shine extra brightly for others who feel as though a cloud of darkness has paralyzed them or rendered them lost.  Now…  I know that not all of my students and followers feel this way, and I know, at the core, that yoga is not political (and frankly, neither am I).  I know that my role is to look at the places and spaces where we can see one another as equals — soul siblings —  and where we can seek to understand one another first and foremost — and it is my deep and unequivocal knowing that this is the place and space from which we grow and heal.

I know I am not alone when I say that I teach what I want to embody.  What I do for a “living” gives me life — literally, and I am so blessed in this way.

Whether it’s the 108 day Pilgrimage we walk together each autumn, or an in-person retreat or our annual 365 day a year conscious living community, Sanctuary.  These  are places where I am provide golden opportunities to share the honey I have been given.  The “honey” of perspective, trust, and truth — no matter how hard it is.

You see, I tend toward “tough love”.
I tend toward calling it out.  For myself and others.
Like it is.  I tend toward asking the hard questions, and holding space for healing in the nourishment of the responses.
And yes, I do tend to touch my finger to the wounds, gently, and say, “does it hurt... here ?”
Because I know it hurts.  We all hurt sometimes…  and, I have found that when we acknowledge we are wounded, and that we are strong enough to claim our pain and our potential, we then can SEE we are FREE.

You know what else I have found?

 

I’LL SAY IT AGAIN.

HAPPINESS (WHICH INCLUDES SECURITY, SAFETY, AND FREEDOM)  IS ULTIMATELY AN INSIDE JOB.

IN CASE YOU WONDER, I WANT THE SAME THINGS YOU WANT.  I WANT TO BE FREE.  I WANT OUR LEADERS TO BE COMPASSIONATE AND GENTLE, WISE AND LACED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS.  AND, MY JOB IS FIRST, AN INSIDE ONE, FOR WE CANNOT CONTROL OTHER PEOPLE  NEVER COULD.  CAN’T NOW.  NEVER WILL.  AND THINKING ANYTHING DIFFERENT WILL MAKE us all CRAZY.

So, let’s do our part, shall we?

How?
1.  Wake everyday and pray (set intention, send good juju — call it what you want).
2.  Practice.  Go to the mat.  Look for Yoga everywhere, and in doing so, you will see it everywhere.
3.  Commit to Love:   In  thoughts.  Words.  Actions.  (for EVERYONE — not just those who love you back, get you, or think like you do).
4.  And then:

NAME IT, CLAIM IT AND SET IT FREE

Whenever light and darkness both enter a space, light always — and in all ways (eventually) wins.

Want more light?  

Here are a few more ways you can crank up the light in your life:

1.  Read autobiographies and biographies of Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Victor Frankl, and Einstein.  Their lives were way hard:  and they shined BUHHHHHH-RIGHTLY in their lives (so brightly we are still feeling it).
2.  Watch great movies:  The Man Who Knew Infinity.  Baggar Vance. Like Stars on Earth.  Dr. Strange. Look for Yoga everywhere in all things, people, world events, and experiences.
3.  Pray. Every. Day.  I don’t care who you believe in.  Or IF you believe in anyone or anything.  You don’t have to do it this way:  Lay it all down — “ALTAR” your perspective, your position, and change out the lens through which you see the world (you just may be wearing the WRONG prescription).
4.  Step in and Step UP.

HOW? Immerse yourself:

Join Conscious Community
Invest in a Training
Go on a Retreat
Come to Classes
Email me and ask me for something brilliant

And then go out there and fight a good fight — with love and compassion as your backbone.

If you want your world to be different, it starts on the inside

I’m just saying.  If you want to change something:  change yourself first.  And if you don’t know how, it’s actually quite simple:  marinade in those that have what you want and  and live as you’d love to live:  and you, too, will change.    Like it or not:  you’re a lot like tofu.

Om.
B