Waking up in India this morning, I am so humbled when I actually take in the wonder of this journey. How did I get here?? When I started this immense commitment, I had no idea how I was ever going to do it. Colby at the time was in kindergarten, and now she is going into 6th grade...time is marked by watching your child grow up..I have grown as well. I started this journey with a spark of desire to grow deeper as a student and to learn more. I was afraid of becoming dull in my teachings and in my love of yoga. So when this was presented to me, and I heard that there was going to a training in this lineage in yoga therapy I felt in my deepest soul place..that this was my path. I never realized that it would take me six years..and yet, when I look at my life..every wonderful effort has taken its profound course of time..and at this moment in time and space, I am just where I am supposed to be. I never started yoga with ever wanting to be a teacher; I was drawn into the path because of healing my own heart. I found a way into my life..and trusted that there was more beauty in the inner world of my soul than in the outer pain of the mind..my ego fell into and surrendered it's hungry needs to be seen..life has taken me into my true heart and I continue living in love and wanting to inspire others to follow their own path. To be able to share this journey has been wonderful..thus, the title to the blog. But the actual path is the journey inward.. The place we all want to go and yet struggle to make the time when our busy lives tell us otherwise..
By turning the attention inward, we can travel to the place of hope. In a world struggling everyday in immense confusion and the suffering of humanity being presented constantly,we forget that we have these tools to find our own way to clarity and balance. The pain of the human condition challenges one's Faith. And yet, I still have the deepest Knowing that the light is shining; we just have to go inward to see it..feel it,connect to it and then live it..yoga has given me the direction I needed and by understanding how to use these ancient tools and refining them, I now feel confident in moving forward on the path. As I return to the Midwest, I hope to be able to deepen this awaken spark and to inspire this possibility in others..that is all I can do..it is up to the student to keep the flame lit and steady..in a world that has the flame too high, we are burning up with inner heat that is causing so much anxiety with the over active guna of "ragis". Or into the quality of "tamas", where the guna expresses itself as inaction, the dulling of the flame appearing as depression. A mind where the hope is no longer visible. As a teacher, healer, mother,friend,wife..
whatever the outer role..my inner svadharma is to keep the flames steady and the minds peaceful; to inspire others to use the tools to sustain clarity,to live from the balance of a more sattvic guna. From this perceptive one can taste the sensation of of hope. This is the key to finding joy in life..hope is the key..turning it daily, brings us into our inner joy.
From the teachings of the Taittriya Upanisad, it is said that no creature can live without joy..and ever moment is an active-seeking of this greater joy. If this motive force is removed from life, the entire existence tumbles down..the movement of life is continued and kept up by the dynamism of this quest towards joy.. The problem is in the mind when all the the senses are directed outside the Self..when the mind links only in the outer attachments and desires of the senses,.then pain arises in the disappointment of the mind always wanting more... However, when JOY arises from the inner light..this is the spark that allows all action to move in a direction without the attachment to the consequences. In the teachings of the Gita, all actions must be without the desire of the fruit of those actions..I must let go of the outcome. Hence, this journey..I am on the path and living what is my Truth..and loving today what is my dharma..and committing to sharing these tools and offering hope to anyone that presents a need. Not easy in a world so distracted, so caught up in the outcome. The emptiness felt in our Global world is hungry for connection; a connection to the deeper place of fulfillment. My hope is we start seeing the true place in each of us..to be happy and free of this little mind. The world is not fair, there is so much anger, greed, fear. There is suffering and pain..and yet, there is the knowing that we are worthy of more compassion and forgiveness..everyone wants the same for their life..to feel this peace and taste joy in the heart..as my dear mentor, Joseph Campbell has inspired in me, "life is the joyful participation
in the sorrows of the world".. Please smile more, laugh deeply and love passionately..and of course dance with abandon. Be foolish for love because life is so sweet and way too short..enJOY!! Be in JOY.
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