Blessings in 2015 - And changing our ways.
Being empowered isn’t about having it all figured out its about stepping into our power and claiming our sacred place in the world.
With the New Year comes new inspiration and lots of opportunity to change our ways. When we are young we don’t realize the conditioning that traps us and move blindly in the world of fantasy and wishful thinking. As we get older we become more cynical that those changes will actually happen. We have seen far too many new years resolutions come and go while the feeling of being stuck remains.
In yogic terms we call this samskara. Samskara are impressions grooved into our subconscious mind based on past experience and affect our thoughts and behaviors. Samskara paints our perception of the world. These samskara, mental imprints, are hard to change because over time a particular pattern or mental pathway grows deeper and more ingrained. Patterns continue to repeat themselves consciously and more often, unconsciously.
So how do we change our samskara? How do we create new grooves? How do we change our habits and patterns, especially as we get older and more set in our ways?
To be honest with myself (and you), I have been running a little ragged. Giving and doing more then I allow myself to rest and receive. My particular samskara had me fooled into thinking that this behavior is somehow honorable, successful even spiritual. The mind is a sneaky SOB! Remarkably I have given myself a proper vacation. Three weeks in Thailand to rest and restore so I can share from a full cup.
Last night as I sat down to meditate under the waning full moon. I heard my inner voice say, “Ok, I am ready to sit down, shut up and listen.”
Immediately my whole bodymind relaxed. I was free to be a human on planet earth just being. The earth speaks, earth creatures communicate, the universe sings us love songs, burning masses blaze violently through space, our heart pours the healing wisdom of love into our every cell, Life is a relationship of two seemingly separate individuates becoming One.
Yoga/tantra is our participation, our silent listening and witnessing of Existence Itself. We are already the sublime intelligence of the cosmos, the divine emanation of The One.
Yet we forget.
Yoga is our remembering.
Yoga is our pathway back home to Source and our means of deeply listening.
The past few years have been a strange mixed bag of successes and failures for me. I trust you can relate. Riding the wave of life isn’t always easy (though some make it look so from the outside. Don’t be fooled! No one really knows what is going on here!) and as the imprints, samskara, deepen its easier to live by habit pattern energies then by our own soul volition. I can hear the song by Pink Floyd now…“I have become comfortably numb”.
Making a real change can be scary because that’s where freedom lives and guess what? IT. TAKES. WORK. We call it Kriya Shakti, the Power of Action. Making a different choice then the ‘same old same old’ means waking up to what is and waking up to the truth of our actions in the world and their effect on our lives and relationships. You have the power, Kriya Shakti, within you to change. Will you take the time to awaken and cultivate this power?
For those who are interested in freedom from suffering and liberation from the recursion of karmic patterns due to samsakra, yoga/tantra is a way.
This year I have committed to practicing every blessed day, rain or shine. Not to prove anything or post it on Instagram with a hashtag, but to be still inside and listen. I encourage you to do the same. Take what spiritual teachings you have been taught and practice it. (if you need guidance with this or don't have a spiritual practice, don’t be afraid to ask! That's what I'm here for.)
People can and do sell you a program, a promise of salvation. But it will be you, it always has and always will be you who will need to eventually step into your power and make the sometimes-hard sometimes-joyous decision to take actions that are in alignment with your soul.
I dare you to sit down, shut up and listen ;) It’s enough. It has power, Kriya Shakti, to give you the strength and guidance to make the scary changes you are dying to make. (and you already know what they are!)
I believe in you.
We are in this together.
Happy New Year! May the Goddess bless you in all ways in 2015.
Love,
Nianna