Meeting yourself where you are at…..
How often do you find yourself pushing against, “what is”? I think there is an epidemic of impatience in the US. Maybe it is international but I certainly see it and experience it here.
We are like 2 year olds. “I want WHAT I want, WHEN i want it and WHERE I want it.”
Sound/feel familiar?
We suffer when we are not able to surrender or accept what is in the moment. Pushing rarely works. If it does, it is often temporary.
This is true whether the issue is physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.
There is always that period of time when it is perfectly normal to shout at the heavens, blame others, feel like ‘why does this always happen to ME’? But the sooner we can get through this piece the sooner we will find greater peace around what is going on.
Once we are able to surrender and accept that this is my new norm at this moment, what CAN I do? This is something that happens when we get physically injured. I will speak from yoga as that is my main physical endeavor but yours might be running or biking or martial arts, etc.
One of the things that I have noticed when I have been injured is the thought, “OH! Now i cannot do my yoga!!” Notice the word, “my”. So at various times over the years, I have had to back off from certain poses as my body healed. So when I say ‘my’ yoga, I have a certain expectation around a certain set of postures. The beauty of yoga is the wide variety of postures! Once I let go of a certain ‘manner’ of practice, there are hundreds of options and modifications.
So I meet myself WHERE I AM and ask myself, “so what CAN i do?” And I start there. And it inevitably leaves me feeling empowered and back on the path.
There is a teaching from the Stoic philosophy that “The Obstacle IS the way.” I love that and I certainly have seen it play out in my life.
It makes me think of the story of Michael Phleps. During his training, he injured his shoulder and had to give it a rest. So while his team mates continued their training for the Olympics he had to hang at the edge of the pool and just kick…..later he said that what he felt gave him his edge the year he won his 7 gold medals was the strength of his LEGS!
So today, think about WHERE or HOW you are pushing. Where is Life asking you to relax, surrender, slow down, accept? Where can we drop the oars and just float?? And what kind of action CAN you take from where you are at now, from THIS place?
ok. all for now! much love, m
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