CALL ME TRISHA… :)

I have just finished reading ‘MOBY DICK and what a great read; Poor old Ahab, he built a prison for himself out of anger and revenge. Ultimately it was his downfall and his ship a coffin for him and his crew.  Some of them might not have realised what was going on but some of them did and clearly ‘LET’ him take them down with him against all common sense. How significant then that only Ismael survived to tell the tale by floating on a coffin!  One of my little pleasures is FISHING sentences from books that can illustrate a point or can FLOAT alone and serve as a motto. In this case in the very last chapter I found a great illustration for something on my mind lately ~ Starbuck says of Ahab’s clearly suicidal instructions “Against the wind he now steers us for the open jaw,”… “God keep us, but already my bones feel damp within me and from the inside wet my flesh. I misdoubt me that I disobey my God in obeying him!” … Well. We know how this FISHY ‘TAIL’ ended. 🙂

I think that we can sometimes override our own better judgement,
instincts, doubt/disregard ourselves in order to follow others, orders, tribes or trends. Thankfully such overriding does not lead to certain death as in Starbuck’s case but perhaps it leads to sacrifice of something not visible to the naked eye, a DROWNing of a deeper truth or Self.

Yoga helped me locate my higher Self and ANCHOR to it (even when I DRIFT I am drawn/FLOAT back to it eventually). It has helped me to trust and follow my instincts to be able to make a firm decision (to not sit on the fence) and if required to follow up and stand strong and alone in consequence to answer in faith for my decisions which are based on my truth and desire to do the right thing (even if it turns out to be wrong). This can be hard for some, perhaps people who are not close to you might not understand your decision, maybe they don’t know it is part of a bigger picture. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone anyway. Harder still a lesson to learn for me but Yoga has also helped me to recognise when/where to ask for guidance, acknowledge when a trade-off/compromise is being made, but to do it if it is for right end (let go of ego) and to come right out and say if I have made a mistake.

Some decisions are hard, sometimes they do feel like they are about survival; but survival of what? Ask yourself is it about survival of the ‘ego’? the answer to that question might then help you to then answer the next most important and only question really that will help you when there is a decision to be made and that is ‘IS IT THE RIGHT THING TO DO?’
I give ye a TIDDLER of a poem 🙂 ~

Get out of ‘jail’, Don’t be scared
Have no regrets, but be prepared
Learn from mistakes. SWIM towards SHORE
Try something different and Use your OAR
Serve, love, give, SURVIVE, you must live to tell the tale
Moby Dick was the end of Ahab
But Jonah he LIVED ‘in’ de WHALE 🙂

Namaste ~ Trisha

Ps. on a totally different but related 🙂 note pictures of the ‘Yoga with Whales’ in an Aquarium classes ~ Seriously folks have you ever heard of anything more nonsensical. It is so easy and desirable for many to hijack the word ‘Yoga’, or in this case Yoga itself, if they see it will support them to their own end e.g. to sell their product and/or perhaps create a distraction from an inferior product… but like the placard says ‘Yoga does not make Whale Jails Okay!’.

January 2015