Process, not perfection for insights and freedom.
4/15/2024
Good afternoon dear seekers,
Monday here again and I come to the page to write. I’m noticing my mind is a bit searching, a bit scattered, a bit seeking as I experience lethargy of body, resistance in my nervous system to meet the unwritten work. I sense the habit to intellectualize what is happening for me. Recent learnings from Janina Fisher extend that my thinking mind has been a protector, a hero in times of distress. This part will step in with habituated action, with this true intention of support, a strong protector. I take pause to breathe into that.
Breath In. and Breath out. Centering (manifesting toward) that wise self within.
Thank you- my thinker part. You are amazing, powerful, to be acknowledged. And. As it is seen, I start the shift from habituated action toward more wise discernment. There isn’t a real threat here I assure my nervous system, just some unmet needs.
Breathing into my wise self, still foggy in the body- I take a short practice of Legs up the Wall with arms overhead to welcome more oxygen and support.
Steady Breath in. Steady Breath out.
Arising, I let my mind soften and draw upon more focus to return the task. I recall from my morning practice the tagline “Practice, not Perfection.” Perfection and self-improvement pursuits can leave us in exhaustion. The invitation is to shift from self-improvement toward self-liberation. Focus on your desired direction. Not to change the self, but to liberate toward your most ideal ways of being. Direction that generates freedom, integration and transformation.
This is all to express the orientation to you that it truly it is all about the practice, as we often say the journey, not the destination. The process, not the outcome.
My intention was to offer you the yogic teaching of Saucha. Saucha is purification. To purify, to invite cleaner choices for consumption of all types, shed the layers from winter, to cleanse our habits of inner, outer, and coming back to nourishing the body, our space, our relationships and the like. Some healthy fire toward the impurities.
And while Saucha as focus is true for me, to champion through purifying your most vital self in body, mind, and space for your values and gifts to shine- the process to come to these insights held equal resonance. To be in my authenticity and to allow you permission to be in yours.
I happened upon this writing of Morgan Harper Nichols, poignant as I recall last week’s invitation about permission to wander.
She writes: “I hope that one day you look back and find little things that felt scattered were actually a constellation of stars.”
Soothing Breath in. Soothing Breath out.
Let yourself be, let yourself see your constellation of stars. The metaphor of vastness of sky can bring us out of isolation, of lethargy and return us to greater sense of expansiveness and wholeness in which we are all connected. Allow yourself to be within the process as your insights arise. Take care in your daily routine to make those choices that will purify you, supporting yourself toward more clarity. Enact that spring cleaning, decluttering all the layers in your space internal and external. Space to land the flittering mind from your place of wise compassion and in support of self-liberation, not perfection toward your aspirations and desired ways of being.
Let yourself be, let yourself see your constellation of stars.
Here with you in practice. With Love and Light.
-Maya
Inspirations from: Morgan Harper Nichols, Janina Fisher, Shauna Shapiro, and my yoga teachers.
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