Loosen your Grip. Feel, Breathe, and Surrender to your heart.
11/18/2024
"Do one thing at a time, and do it entirely, and it will lead you to the next moment of love." Mark Nepo
Gra: to grasp or hold | Pari: from all sides, anything that is nearby | A: to negate
Hi everyone. I'm surprised I found a bit more space to write you today. Some time and insight available before I head to Mellow Monday's class this evening. I lead my first longer form workshop in person this weekend on Deeping into the Doshas, an effort I'd be working on for some time. All to say- I want you all to remember to celebrate your wins. This felt like a big one for me, a balancing of high standards, done is better than perfect and surrendering to heart, the enough ness of presence, unattached to outcome. Keep refining yourselves my friends, first times are hard, and lean into where your heart is calling. You aren't alone.
All that said- I am actively in the practice of Aparigraha- in both teaching and integration. To possessing less. Our home is downsizing and moving neighborhoods, and as I sift through the items, the sentimental and the like, what is ready to be let go is an ongoing practice. You can visit last week for further on the other Yamas. At present, I find Mark Nepo's teachings to be a welcomed return alongside the tuning in of the season.
"A river doesn't hold all the water that passes through it. In our journey through time we struggle constantly with what to bring along and what to leave behind. It feels so hard to throw anything away, but if we don't we will drown underneath a weight of our own making... The river is a good model. In truth, there is no point to holding on to the deepest things that matter, for they have already shaped us. " Mark Nepo.
While I appreciate the river, that it allows the water to move through- just as our experiences, and the things we collect, I also recognized too that discernment is also the practice. And that we shed, each in our time. Just as the leaves of the trees- sometimes blown harshly by the winds of the world- so too do we shed sometimes by choice, but more often as a matter of circumstance to meet what life delivers to us, outside our control or comfort.
No one is free from life's challenges. You might consider for you what you might be carrying, holding or grasping onto. Physically, mentally or emotionally. Here always an opportunity to take in a few cleansing rounds of breath to listen in. Toward what lives in you that might have unmet needs in the form of frustration, unfair treatment or accumulated resentment. Or perhaps loss, grief, sadness, disappointments that my lie beneath these emotions.
For each of us, the residue of past that we may still carry as daylight lessens- And for the inevitable layering from life that is to come- might we resolve to create the conditions within to allow for an openness of heart?
This week- a mantra:
Breathing in, I feel deeply, breathing out, I let go, surrender to my heart.
Continue refining, find your middle path, not too rigid or too loose in how we integrate the teachings, for we are meaning makers, agents of hope, resilience of heart.
"Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go. There was no effort. There was no struggle." Saphire Rose.
Take the permission, knowing you have this greater resource of spirit within you- to feel, to breath, to listen, to let go. And so we cycle forth. From Lord of the Rings wisdom :) "Remember that it is not your strength that overcomes the darkness- it is your light." Be the light. It is always there, even as the shadows and the struggles come. Here's to our continued collective transformation, showing up for ourselves and each other.
Here with you in practice. In Love & Light.
Ongoing Offerings:
In Studio @ Yoyoyogi: Mon@ 6pm Mellow Monday. A 75 min integrated yin yoga
Online via Zoom:
GENTLE MORNING YOGA - Rise, Move, Pause | 30 min
8:00 am PST/ 11:00 am EST Tues & Thurs
$PayWhatYouWant
Virtual or In Person Yoga Therapy