“So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in and looked toward the sun and walked into the sky” ~ Philip Pullman
If you know ‘His Dark Materials’ {‘HDM’} you know that ‘WINDOWS’ are openings between two different universes through which ‘Dust’ was able to leak and destroy other worlds and every window opened created a new Spectre? You’ll know the IMPORTANCE OF CLOSING THE WINDOW BEHIND so no destructive leakages of Dust and when all that was under control ‘Angels’ would take care of the Spectres? Stay with me now for dust and doors and dark references… power and turning on the light… 🙂
WE ARE ALL MOVING BUT ARE WE MOVING TOWARDS LIGHT OR WALKING ON THE SPOT IN THE DARK? There has been something a ‘little dark’ about this past year hasn’t there. Whether it be ‘dust’ 🙂 or ‘alignment of planets’ or ‘politicians’ or ‘little virus that knows no boundaries showing us ‘size’ isn’t everything’ there has been much to distract in that Universe that is ‘2020’ and its all subjective.
Just like the little children around the world still drinking dirty water didn’t attract that and refugees escaping war torn countries didn’t attract that, we didn’t attract this pandemic to us as a punishment because we did a ‘bad’ in this life or the past. Altho’, as a ‘collective’/humanity, we’ve had a WAKE UP CALL, we are not responsible for the ‘dark’ that nearly engulfed us this year but we have a duty now to examine this mess and some decisions to make about how we move forward if we want Mother Earth to sustain us long term. We won’t all be able to do this; not all are ‘ready’ yet and some may still be emotionally depleted and feel distanced (traumatized) by the events of the year but we have people in power who need to be shaken/woken up to represent those who are not able and if the right people are not in power we need to PUT them in power first opportunity. As a result of pandemic we each have {had} big choices to make. OURS. No one elses’ responsibility.
We have a duty to shine our light outwards and interrogate every decision our leaders make to ensure that those representing us do not contribute to future collective ‘malfunction’ that has our name all over it. There is no excuse for ignorance. WE DO HAVE POWER. Let us not give our power or light away. We have a deep responsibility to ourSelves too to shine that light inwards and continually question and examine how we currently live as individuals to make sure it aligns with our personal truth (be honest with ourselves) and us ultimately being the best version of ourselves that we can be TO BE SURE that even if those we put in power can’t/don’t ‘mandate it right’, we can still make personal choices that have a powerful positive effect. (I’m a firm believer in the Gaia principle and that each personal good choice will ultimately nourish the collective good effort.)
Individually this year has stress tested all areas of our lives and in some cases we may have had to ‘lighten the load’ and end involvements that held us back from being our best for the ones that really needed us. Sometimes someone is thrust upon you or inserts themselves into your life who you recognize as not compatible with your truth. Being in their presence diminishes your light. They made a choice that forces you to have to make a choice. That’s life. We can’t avoid them but can control how we handle them; we have a responsibility to ourselves here, not just the other person. Its tricky but maybe there are a few questions we can ask ourselves to help us make right decision: ‘Is this situation/person preventing me from better serving others who are more deserving of my time, energy, compassion?’ or ‘If I stay in/with this situation/person will it/they just steal my precious prana, chi, lifeforce, light leaving nothing for others who need it more?’ Ultimately make space to do what better serves the true need.
COMPASSION: is it the answer?
EVERYONE HAS LIMITS trying to go beyond which they become ineffective or unwell. It is True, compassion should not discriminate and IDEALLY is a beautiful limitless practice to cultivate BUT. (There is a ‘but’). Let me give you an example of how we manage it in our Yoga School. We have made choices and sacrifices in a former life so that we can create our own reality now and we don’t have to compromise it for ‘other’ who wants to manipulate it to suit their reality. That is why we have ‘Terms & Conditions’. Say our school’s Terms are our way of letting people know our personal limits of where/how far we feel we can go with this; the boundaries within which we can work well and still serve. They describe OUR PERSONAL ‘ideals’, ‘philosophies’ and ‘principles’ and we won’t compromise them. We cannot serve ‘all’. We are not compatible with ‘all’. We always knew this. We never set out seeking universal popularity and we are quite comfortable with, in fact we own, the FACT that we will not meet every bodies idea of what they think a Yoga School should be. IT IS GOOD YOGA PRACTICE TO NOT TAKE ON SOMETHING/SOMEONE YOU ARE NOT UP TO HANDLING, hence we designed our ‘Terms’ to attract those to us who find compliance with them no biggie. This is part of our ‘Self Compassion’ commonly now called ‘Self Care’; it will eliminate ‘fatigue/dizziness’ of going round in circles with the ’other/non compatible’ IT WILL ALLOW US TO BE MORE EFFECTIVE WITH THOSE WITH WHOM WE CAN TRULY MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.
Yes! For a brief moment this year we maybe saw only the limitations being placed upon us, our light dimmed and we got a little confused about where our focus should be directed. WHEN DOWNTIME WAS IMPOSED ON US WE SAW AGAIN THAT THE UNIVERSE GIVES US WHAT WE NEED WHICH IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT WE WANT. In our previous focus on gov’t guidance and restrictions we nearly forgot we still had FREEDOM and POWER over our own response. “It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of someone else’s life with perfection.” ~ Bhagavad Gita To do anything other than make the ‘right’ choice/response here is not good Yoga practice; Yoga ethics and Ahimsa should always be observed INCLUDING TOWARDS ONESELF! In the end the choice might involve a recognition of having to knuckle down and work harder just to scrape by AND/OR a ‘let go’. This ‘working harder’, this ‘acknowledging limitations’, this ‘letting go’, this ‘hard but right choice’ are ALL YOGA IN ACTION! And you can amplify the good effect of these actions by feeding and nourishing your MIND, BODY and SPIRIT with Yogasana, Meditation, Conscious Breathing… something from these every day to balance out all the other ‘stuff’ that’s ongoing…
PRACTICE GRATEFULNESS too! Keeping your mind and body healthy is an expression of gratitude to Gaia and to ALL around you. ‘BE’ ever grateful…
PICK YOURSELF UP, DUST YOURSELF OFF: 2020 has had its day!
Back to HDM and windows and angels!!! We use poetic licence and say ‘its DOORS’ at YM! (not windows) @ YM Angels FREQUENTLY walk through our DOORS (although we frequently have white feathers floating through our windows too 😉 ). Opening our doors and KEEPING THEM OPEN is our big focus. Virus brought darkness and forced our sector to close its doors again in December (only time will tell whether that made a good difference). We stepped back and dusted ourselves off. We now had time that seemed ‘spare’ (is there such a thing). In that forced downtime we squinted a bit to see better in the dark, we let the ‘dust’ settle, did a deep clean, took care to firmly shut a few particular doors and made conscious decision to stop looking back at them. As we all know when one door closes ANOTHER DOOR OPENS. You have to ‘look forward’ to be able to see that! We are under no illusion that the date ‘1/1/21’ is magic panacea and suddenly ‘all the dark will be gone out of the world’. Dark is always present but when it engulfs us that is where fear prospers. Light is so easy to Love but only in the darkness can you see the real effect of light; the choice is: stay mired in the dark or reach for the light. We will remain ever ‘present’ Yogis BUT we see LIGHT AHEAD shining through NEW DOORS 2021 and we focus on it and move toward that door carrying our flickering little light. By this light we see all that we have and we have SO MUCH. IN FACT WE HAVE EVERYTHING. THANK YOU UNIVERSE. Maybe we can use our light to help others find their way.
In 2021 Let common sense & light prevail and remember don’t waste your precious time living an imitation of life LIVE YOUR OWN DESTINY ~ IF IT DOESN’T OPEN ITS NOT YOUR DOOR!!! ~
Om Om Om ~ Old Ways Don’t Open New Doors ~ BE the Light ~
Wishing You All a Restful Year End and a Rousing New Year xx
Trisha & Darren @ YM 2021
related blog: What Does ‘Finding Yourself’ mean?