Spring is coming, and with it growth, change, transformation, life. Transformation can be glorious and beautiful. It can also be messy and painful. (Just ask anyone who’s given birth.) To be fully alive means to stay present with all of it, denying neither the light nor dark, but fully embracing both — feeling completely whatever is.
Life is beautiful. And it is hard. It’s a package deal. I can’t extract just the good, the easy, the smooth. If i reject any of it, I reject it as a whole. I choose to live — to embrace life in its entirety. I am here. Here I am.
“Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.” — Pema Chödrön
When you meditate or practice yoga asana or any other sort of mindful practice, notice the urge to (mentally) run away (from the preset moment) if it arises. Notice when you do run away. And then welcome yourself back with wide open arms and keep going… over and over again.
When I do my own asana practice, and take different shapes with my body (a transformation of sorts), sometimes my transitions are easy, seamless, and elegant. Other times they are uncomfortable, wobbly, messy, and clumsy. Either way, my goal is not necessarily to not fall over, but rather to stay with myself no matter what happens. To keep breathing, opening to the experience and my connection to my ultimate Truth, my intention, the unconditional love within. The awkwardness and in-between-ness is just as much a part of the practice than what might appear to be the glorious, balanced, full expression of a pose.
“The peace that we are looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is difficulty or chaos. Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises. Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.” — Pema Chödrön
Krystal Barschig 