Don’t feel like practicing today?

I don’t blame you. There is a strong inertia effect going on…we are stuck in our house more, wondering when this will end, and trying to digest all the noise of the outer world.

This can make it hard to get going due to a strange combination of lethargy and anxiety. The inner monologue is extra chatty. How do we spend our energy so that we feel balanced and focused on our own lives? 

My greatest suggestion is:

Just start moving. Get your energy flowing….chances are you will like to continue!

In the yoga realm, what I tend to do is begin moving in gentle ways. I may be on all-fours, on my back, or my belly. I notice my breath but I am not focused so much on synching it with my movement. I make strange noises. I sigh a lot. When I feel the urge to pause or rest, I do. I let my energy settle. I stay there until I get the impulse to move again. After a while I may even introduce some muscular strength as feel more awakened. 

This turns into a juicy embodied flow that not only get my energy unstuck, but it delightfully gets me out of my head. Even if for just a few minutes, I am simply enjoying my body in motion. Most of the time the shapes I make don’t even resemble traditional yoga postures. I’m not working on alignment. I playing with presence. You can’t think about what is coming next when you are here. Let your felt sense lead you. 

Perhaps it will turn into a full-blown practice, or perhaps it will serve as a mini break from the weight of life.  Wherever it takes you, I hope it helps clear your slate and return to “real life” feeling more centered and bright. 

The Spiritual Crisis of Separation

The crisis that you will not hear on the news is that people are feeling worthless because they are not producing. The global pandemic has people out of work and many out of income. Through the ages we have become a society that tricks us into believing that we are valuable if we can produce “stuff” and consume “stuff.” We must participate in the economy to be a respectable human. Is that why we are here? To produce and consume?

We have separated about as far as we can from our humanity. We have forgotten that “worthiness” shouldn’t even be something to consider, because we just are. We have been convinced to put aside our greater calling and our joy to feed someone else’s bottomless appetite for power. The shame of not fitting in this box keeps us even further from our personal power. So how do we disentangle this mess, especially when our mental patterns work to serve others’ narcissism?

We start small. We recognize our power to choose and choose again in our daily lives. Now I choose joy. Now I choose peace. Now I appreciate the glories of spring. Now I choose to do five minutes of yoga. Now I choose to smile at someone beneath my face mask and hope they see it in my eyes. This light of yours will likely dim and brighten, but with commitment it will grow and grow. Others will feel it. Then they will begin to feel their own. Your light will be the healing virus.

We have reached the peak of individuality and separation. We as crested waves must crash back into the ocean to togetherness. Millenia of separating from togetherness, to tribes, to clans, to families, to selves, we must integrate our unique discoveries to serve each other. This is where we have the choice to learn our lesson to help our people and help our planet. Otherwise we try to go back to business as normal, where we continue to neglect our live-giving resources and face more and more viruses. How will we use our freewill? How you use your light is where you power resides.