awaken

Deep Sustenance

/ embracingspirit / Leave a comment

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom

you have studied, 

I want to know what sustains, 

from the inside, 

when all else falls away.

Tell me of a time when hope and faith wasn’t enough.  Tell me what sustains you when all that you have known, or relied on, falls away.  Tell me what you do to find your way back when you are lost?

When all that we have relied on falls away we have nothing to do but wait. How we wait is up to us.  Whether we wait with openness, or we close off, the choice is ours.  We either choose to LIVE or we move towards a death.

To choose life, we have to be willing to wait.  To ride the waves of life even when it seems impossible.  To wait for the waves to subside.

What sustains us when all else falls away are the things that we do that make waiting and staying open to life possible. These things are our practices that fill up the space when hope and faith are waiting to find us again.

For me, my practices are my foundation.  Without them, I am lost in life.  I know that these are the rituals that I must do while I lean towards faith and hope with anticipation that they are around the corner during the hard times of my life.  Without these practices, I know I would not be able to show up in life the way that I do.

  • daily power hour; setting my intention for the day, journal meditation, plan my day and review my commitments, create tasks to complete that support my dreams, read a motivational/spiritual passage.
  • walk in nature; rain, snow, shine.  No matter what I get at least one 30 minute walk each and everyday.   No matter the temperature because after all that is what hats and gloves are for.
  • bubble bath; beyond the practical reasons, I self-care soak at least once per day to get grounded and connected, to wash off the day’s experiences and energy, and to savor my body.

These daily practices sustain me and keep me from being lost in a big world with often big experiences while I wait for hope and faith to find me.

This week we will explore this on the mat (or chair) as we dive into our practices of movement and breath with the idea of deep sustenance.  We will wait out postures by following our breath and coming back into the moment of now.

Join me!

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The Joy

/ embracingspirit / Leave a comment

I want to know if you can be with joy, 

mine or your own, 

if you can dance with wildness

and let ecstasy fill you to the tips of your

fingers and toes

without cautioning us

to be careful, 

to be realistic, 

to remember the limitation of being human.

This week on the mat (or in the chair) we will be looking at joy and the choice we have to feel the smallest and greatest moments of joy in life without cautioning us to be realistic or careful or limited. To actually FEEL the joy that is within and who we are.  To say yes to the moments in life that bring complete joy.

Are you paying attention to joy? Tell me about a moment of joy in your life.

The moments of joy that stop you and pull you from the daily tasks that have become mundane and automatic.  Those moments that fill you with ecstasy and consume your entire being.

“…..Moments of mystical union can tempt us to spend our lives searching for those peak experiences and leave us unable or willing to receive the same joy where it is offered in the simpler experiences…” (Oriah Mountain Dreamer)

Joy finds us in the moments of elation when we feel a connection; to another, to ourselves, to the world and to the greater Mystery of life.  When we touch that part of ourselves that brings us directly into the face of our purpose.

And yet, as humans we so often deny our joy.  Our lives have so accustomed to feeling pain in the form of disappointments, resentments and past hurts.  We have lost the connection to the inner joy that is who we are. And what is our divine birthright.

For me, I want to cultivate and grow a deeper sense of joy in my life.  If it comes in the beauty of the sunrise or the sensation of another person’s touch, I don’t want to miss a second of joy.  I want to savor the moments of joy and fully embrace the pleasures of being alive.

I also know for me one source of  deep joy is found in my work.  Somehow we have been taught that to have too much of sense of greatness we will not have the concept of humility.  I disagree.  I choose to not diminish my abilities and my gifts.  I refuse to shrink back again.  I refuse to play small.

Small and joy do not coincide.

Sometimes we find that we expect too little joy in life and we settle for less.  In doing this, our soul is stifled.  Our soul becomes submerged in the litany of excuses that make up reasons as to why we can’t, or shouldn’t.

But life is so incredibly short.  And ultimately joy is a choice.

So tell me about a joy in your life.  Maybe one that came unexpectedly. A moment that you did not know was coming. The joy that caught you by surprise.

This is the work of the soul.  To find those inner caverns of ourselves and be willing to seek how we fit into the world.  It is searching to find that which we are made for and to say yes to joy.