Got Guts?

This time of year, almost any time of year, many of us are uber conscious about our bellies. Hmmmmm. Maybe it's the Universe's way of getting our attention. "Pay attention to your naval center!" "Hey! Look at me! I've got a clue!" "Hey Listen to your Guts!" "Do you have the guts to hear/do what I have to say?"

When we squeeze our guts off, we are squeezing off a large part of our innate wisdom. do we really want to be "gutless?" Or do we want to have the guts to live large? To live the larger life that we all know is out there? Are we ready to embrace the fact that the larger life is within? Maybe when our guts grow uncomfortably large, or we feel bloated, it is our innate wisdom trying to get out. Maybe it is our Soul saying that we have what it takes to live large and if we would just let go, that large life IS our life.

Have the guts to love your guts. Have the guts to love your Self. Have the guts to live large. And as you relax the false sense of control that our physical and psychic girdles provide us with, you may find that having guts may result in better digestion, a more relaxed attitude, less stress. And ultimately less stress, better digestion and a more relaxed attitude may result in letting go of the extra physical weight that our bodies have imposed on ourselves to either get our attention or protect us from the barrage of our own attack.

So next time you want to bemoan or complain about your guts, try shifting the energy. Try letting your guts be heard by letting them stick out (privately if necessary), and try to calm your mind enough to actually listen past what you think they are telling you. They may have a bigger picture, and once you are willing to see and hear the bigger picture they are sharing with you, they may not need to shout so loudly.

so what's it gonna be? Got guts? or are you committed to being gutless?

To Life

"Pay attention to life. She will pay attention to you." I have heard those words from at least 3 of my major teachers. Start treating what is contained in life with respect and reverence. Treat all as if everything is conscious. In order to do this and still be able to eat, walk,  breathe, you gotta let go of judgements or you'll be afraid to move for fear of harming something.

Talk to the trees, the bugs, the kitchen counter. Your elbow, your back, your teeth, your pancreas. Whatever is bugging you, talk with it. Sit with it. Get to know it before trying to change it. Consider it spiritual foreplay. Make friends with your external environment. Make friends with you internal environment. 

They say keep your friends close and your enemies closer, which means that it pays off to include all aspects, not just the ones that are easy to know, easy to love. Love thine enemy. I think Jesus was really talking about loving yourself. Loving the Whole of you. 

Vacation- Every day

Vacation. Vacate. Getting the hell outa dodge. Sometimes it is easier to retreat. To say No. To "get away from it all."

What are we getting away from? The hustle and bustle? The internet? Cell service? Our jobs? Our kids? Our families? Food? Our habits, aka our physical self as we are used to it?

And retreat is fine. It's kind of like fasting. A place to reboot, recharge, assess. A place to make New Year's Resolutions after New Year's. And these moments where we change our momentum, where we pull ourselves off the wheel, are important. We gain perspective. We see that there are other ways to make it through the day. We see that maybe we don't need 12 cups of coffee to make it through the day. As we go on a self-imposed "fast" from our usual routine, we open ourselves to the possibility of change.

The downside of "fasting" is that often we don't learn how to eat. We know what not to eat - we know what we shouldn't do - drink 12 cups of coffee, but when plunked back into life as we know it, the buffet of life, do we know how to eat? Do we know what to do, to choose, to keep that feeling of the fast or the vacation going while we live in the world that we've created for ourselves to live in?

I'm using the metaphor for diet because we all eat. And it's important to make the distinction that knowing how to eat is different than knowing how to starve. Knowing how to eat is being able to make choices, to understand what makes us healthy, to know what really feeds us and embrace all. It means being in present moment and knowing that sometimes the "forbidden food" is what we need. What it really means is being inclusive instead of exclusive, where there is no forbidden foods. There are no "cheat days." We know how to eat anything we want, digest it fully, and not feel gross at the end of the meal. We want to learn how to live. How to stay balanced every day.

Often it is easier to go on a diet than to learn how to eat. To go on a retreat, than learn how to live. So we learn how to make daily life a retreat. We start to embraced "retreat living every day."  We start to pay attention that instead of NOT drinking 12 cups of coffee, we get a bit more sleep or put our legs up the wall or close our eyes for a few minutes instead. We take a moment to show appreciation or to find something beautiful (remember how we love to gush about stuff like this on vacation!) To say what is positive about a situation instead of jumping to the negative. To find the balance in everyday life is living on vacation every day.

Awake to awakening

Patanjali's Yoga sutra 1 says "now, therefore, the complete instruction of yoga." The "therefore" implies that something has come before and the student is now ready. This is the moment of awakening. The student is ready for more. The student is ready to see in a new way. How many moments of awakening do we have in one day? How many times do we close the door to awakening, saying, "I don't want to know. I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to understand. I just done want it." Sometimes, we don't think we have time for change. Sometimes we like things the way they are. And at that moment when we are ready for more, "now, therefore, the complete instruction of yoga." Yoga begins. Again.

5 Element Theory

According to Traditional Chines Medicine, there are 5 elements: wood, metal, water, fire, air.
According to the chakra system there are 5 physical elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether (space).
And these elements make up what we consider to be physical life on the planet. Physical life on the physical plane in the physical universe on any planet.

Why do we love to gaze into a fire? Watch the ocean? Listen to nature? Take hikes? Enjoy vistas?

Elementally my dear Watson! We  love the elements. Because we are the elements. We are looking for ourselves in the elements. We are trying to see and recognize our Self.

This is why we try to find things that we "resonate" with. Things that we "align" with. Because we see our Selves. We remember what we have forgotten, whether it be a momentary lapse or lifetimes of darkness.

We are in all that is around us. It's elemental. And whether we stare into a fire, an ocean, or check out the prairie, whether we are captivated with the antics of a child, the plot of a book, or the gadgets that someone thought to make that now we can't seem to live without, we resonate, we respond. We are constantly seeking remembrance. We crave the feeling of resonance so we can remember the song of our Self. And this is a song we can't sing out loud or even talk about. But I know you know what I'm talking about. And that part that we can't really talk about, is exactly what i'm talking about.

So study the ocean, the fire, the vistas, the bugs, the trees. Feel the mud, the water, the heat, the cold, the air, the space. We are the elements of earth, water, fire, air, ether. We are also mind and beyond, which is why we are fascinated with them. Which is why we seek to recognize our Source, our Self. Because we have Mind and Beyond. My dog doesn't recognize himself. He sees himself in the reflection of the sliding glass door, and he doesn't recognize himself. He barks at the strange dog outside of himself.

He is not seeking recognition of his own elements. He just is. He's just doing dog things. He doesn't question those dog things that he does. He doesn't think, "what if I did fish things?" He just does what he does. We humans on the other hand, have the gift of discernment. Of pondering. Of recognizing the self. and the Self. We recognize our self in the mirror. And then, perhaps, we end up barking at all the other aspects outside of ourselves as if we are barking at that strange dog in the sliding glass door.  Because perhaps we are here, seeking to recognize our Self in the big mirror around us that is our Life.

Elementally my dear Watson!

We are on day 3 of the Essence of Yoga Sri Yoga Retreat here on the big island of Hawaii. And because we are in the jungle, we are focussing on the elements.

Day 1 took us to earth. How to be stable, steady, without being buried, stuck, dug in. How the earth holds us, receives us, absorbs our shock. How from this surrender of our troubles, attachments, fears, into her, she responds back with lightness. A feeling of re-birth. A feeling of being light and stable at the same time. It was sunny.

Day 2. Water day. Finding the fluidity within. Cultivating a creative approach. Going with the flow. How water can eventually wear down even the hardest rock. It poured.

Day 3. Today we are in the fire. It started out as another rainstorm - I even got a garbage bag from the kitchen as a raincoat. By the end of practice, the rain stopped. It's beginning to burn off. The rest of the day we take a metaphysically healing (healing and metaphysics optional, yet available) as we prepare to pull the whole consciousness together. And tonight --- fire....

God. I love It.

Swaha.
Ho.
Peace.

Hurts so Good

We can crank our asana practice in order to challenge the mind. We can push our bodies way past what our mind thinks is even possible with "mind over matter." We can use the body to help us experience that we are more than just a body. We climb mountains. We swim across the English Channel. We do extreme sports. We are Olympians.  We do yoga and people take our pictures because we are defying the laws of gravity. We are defying the laws of what is "normal" range of motion in the body. We are contortionists. Hear us roar. And damn, we look good! And yes, we inspire transformation and hopefully give hope to the underdog, the normal person who wants to see the unimaginable physically manifested in a physical form.

If we use our asana practice to help us steady the mind, and we are able to leap tall buildings with a single "jump through," if we have reached what seems to be the end of the road with what is possible in the physical body, and we still aren't enlightened, then what tools do we have? Perhaps our physical body will take us deeper into the thought constructs of the mind by ways where it systematically or seemingly randomly breaks our ability and eventually our need to control our body as a way of helping cut to the chase and control the real beast - the mind. Perhaps physical ailments begin to surface, slowly, inch by inch, year by year, until the old gray mare ain't what she use to be and we blame it on age. But hey, we all look different at different ages, so that's off the table. Perhaps we can look at our bodies like a car. The harder and faster we drive, the more parts that may need replacing. I have a sister in law who turned 50. She wasn't much into exercise her whole life until the last couple of years and she is out there running 5Ks! 10Ks! Who knows how many more Ks? I used my body differently with dance, running, etc... and I walk. I walk because that's what I got left. For now anyway. Don't want to self impose a limit, but I might as well use myself as an example.

My point is, and yes, it's a slow boat here, what happens if we can no longer depend on the body to steady the mind? What if our control of our physical unit and our physical life starts slip slidin' away? Where is the mind then? Depending on our ability to adapt, comprehend, let go, see a bigger picture, will determine the intensity, or perceived intensity of the ride. As the body starts slip slidin', the mind keeps ridin'.

The asana of injury. Get over attachment to the physical body.  Attachment to being able to control details of our external lives. Release attachment to steadying the mind from the steadiness of the body. The body we are accustomed to changes without our conscious choice. Then what? Does our mind fall apart? Or have we built capacity to roll with the unsteadiness of the physical. Not by holding on to what we know. Not by locking down. But by rolling. The body is sliding. Slide down that hill. Into what? Are we willing to find out? Are we willing to let go and find out? Maybe injury or other physical ailments are a way to help us. I know they are in fact. Then our mind starts to learn to stand on it's own 2 feet. From a place of greater lightness as it learns that control is a crazy way of  helping us feel safe. And the only safety is that place deep inside the eye of the hurricane, which is beyond the elements, beyond even the mind. It is your Big S Self.

Ouchasana.

As Rod Stryker so cleanly puts it: "Ouch. Thank you."   Hurts so good.