You know what it’s like.

You are caught on the wheel, stuck in a loop and you can’t get off the train.  Maybe you aren’t even aware of being on the train.

The thing is that life is about cycles and often times we aren’t aware of what is actually happening during these cycles – in our bodies, our minds, our breath.  Our capacity to be aware is limited – we move into awareness, out of awareness, back in and keep on going, back and forth, in and out.  All the while, we are in the cycles of births, growths, maturations, decays, and deaths throughout our lives. Sometimes we are aware, sometimes not.

Often times, we are most aware when we are in pain, worry, stress and agony – because we so desperately don’t want to feel any of those things.  We don’t like suffering and yet – we don’t know how to stop or change.  This is right at the juncture between death and rebirth.  We don’t know what is coming, we are worried it’s going to continue the way it was before and we feel stuck.

Here’s the deal:

It isn’t about changing anything.

It’s about recognizing that if you are stuck, you are most likely in the space in between, that junction.

What does it feel like to hear this and let it seep into your Knowing, into your pores…. that this junction is the most powerful junction in your life?

It is in this junction that we we have the opportunity over and over to sink into it.  But we are so often afraid to do that!  We want OUT!

If any of this speaks to you right now, I want you to do one thing:
Take a deep breath.  Know that you are okay and know that everything will be alright.  You’re just at the junction, the doorway and it’s bringing everything to light, shining a big spotlight on the dark spots in your body and mind.  It feels uncomfortable, maybe we feel physical pain, maybe we feel tight and anxious or depressed in our minds.

So what to do?

It’s simple and hard at the same time – especially if it’s a new thing.

Take another deep breath and try to become aware from a place of curiosity, non-judgment, non-harm.

See if you can wonder about how you feel… not why but how.  Feel your breath.  Feel your seat.  Feel your heartbeat.  Do you feel warm? cool? Light? Heavy? Clear? Muddy?

What qualities are there?

Take another deep breath and now see if you can be aware of that spotlight, your Witness, your Awareness that is showing you where and how you are stuck, how maybe you don’t love yourself.

And then turn towards yourself and gently say to yourself, on the inside, “Right now, I am the way I am, however I am, in the shape, and the form that I am in, in this given moment.”  And see if you can let it be just that.

Something miraculous happens when we do this.  It stops time.  We can breathe, we can soften.

What is happening is that we aren’t fighting the junction.

And that is when change, transformation and healing can actually enter into our lives.  And we step towards the next rebirth, via acceptance.

In yoga…

We practice asana or postures.  In our specific practice, we unwind tensions in the body-mind which lends to more space.  More space lends to us being able to accept ourselves in whatever shape and form.

Each asana is a different shape and form on the outside and on the inside.  In our practice, we have the opportunity to rest in each asana so that we can get to know ourselves from a new place, a new vantage point.  Then we learn through direct experience that things change through awareness and through acceptance.

I invite you to join our group practice today and Tuesday from 4pm-6pm PST.  The time goes fast, because we are hanging in that junction together.  Together, we rest in ourselves, in however we show up in that moment, in body and mind.  And by the end, we feel different because we have bathed ourselves in awareness and acceptance for two whole hours.

All the best and with Great Love,

Meredith