It Is…….
What It Is
Period.
End of conversation.
It is what it is.
This is a simplistic yet accurate statement about our relationship to reality.
As you read that last sentence, does this seem somewhat depressing to you?
To me, in this moment, it sure does.
There is a larger-than-life event unfolding for me, and I am NOT a happy camper.
It is not my choice.
And…..guess what?
It’s happening.
Period.
Ugh.
But wait, where are we in this?
We do participate. We do have preferences. We do interact. We do impose our will.
Yet, in the end, reality is relentless.
It wins.
But there is good news and here it is:
We can craft, we can mold, we can continue to create our right-sized relationship to reality.
We can practice some skillful strategies and perspectives that soften, that support, that literally help us to partner with life in each specific moment……
Drum roll:
TO MAKE IT EASIER.
TO LET GO MORE EASE-FULLY.
Easier? In this moment, easier sounds really good to me.
Here are three simple strategies, my favs, just the headlines, for partnering with life just a tad more skillfully, moment by moment:
- First, everybody’s favorite—
BREATHING & RELAXING.
Just like on the yoga mat, as we tense and hold our breath, life, the pose-of-the-moment, gets harder. Breathing right into the sensations, relaxing around the tension, softens us. The moment comes and goes more fluidly.
- A second, less favorite perspective—
REMEMBERING THE BIGGER PICTURE PERSPECTIVE—WE GET WHAT WE NEED.
The yogis tell us that we get what we need to grow, that circumstances bring to us exactly the people, the places, and the things which will open the wounds that we carry, for healing, for release, for purification. The way out of It, whatever the moment might be, is truly, through It. If you can feel it—you can heal it.
- Third—
GETTING ON THE WINNING SIDE
Allowing the situation to unfold, even and especially if it’s painful and we initially resist it, outliving the feelings, this is the journey of freedom, of consciousness, of heart, of vulnerability and of strength. As we allow ourselves to be carried through the feelings, as we ride the waves and release them and outlive them, more is revealed. Literally new brain functions emerge, new neuropathways are formed, new behavior comes into play. We are on the winning side. We grow, we evolve, we become more of who we really are.
This teaching is a book, condensed, at this moment, into 409 words.
This teaching is a lifetime of practice, condensed, at this moment, into 417 words.
This is the hero’s journey, condensed, at this moment into 429 words.
And if you are reading this, you are a hero.
You are a woman, a man, a being of consciousness and grace.
You are a woman, a man, a being of strength and tender-heartedness.
You are a woman, a man, a being of willingness, readied to befriending your own resistance.
Dear Woman,
Dear Man,
Dear Being of consciousness and grace,
Your practice, Dear Hero, in whatever body you are wrapped, is to do your best with life as it is, moment, by moment.
Breathe and relax and ride the waves, as you can.
And if you can’t.
That, too, is an essential part of your healing.
Whenever you are able, whenever the breath returns, remember those profound words of Rumi:
The door is round and opened.
Dear Friends, what waves are you riding? Has life given you something that you don’t really want, that you don’t think you selected? Welcome to the human dilemma. Breathe and relax and imagine, just imagine, that wrapped inside that yucko situation is a gift, waiting to emerge. I don’t say that to take away the feelings. No. I say that to give us courage and the perspective to take the next breath, to ride the breath through the feelings.
To abide the moment, truly this is the hero’s journey.
Dear Friends, please keep in touch. I learn so much, I am so blessed, by your emails. I am aruni@rnetworx.com
To summer,
With blessings—
Aruni