Thursday, June 4, 2009

Change: do you make it happen, or do your set yourself up for it?

Not too long ago, I did a reading with an energy reader from Australia, who proved totally amazing and insanely humble. Besides all the amazing information and details she came up with, she said something at the end of our time together that struck me like lightening. It was so obvious and yet so profound that I lost the ability to talk (now, THAT is a miracle) and got stuck on the light of this Truth.

She said: ‘Change naturally unfolds when your energetic and emotional frequency is where it needs to be’.

Amazing.

Forcing change, creating change, enabling change, igniting change. Externally. Was that all a dream and lost attempt at shaping the world around me when I was not ripe inside? Does that mean that all you need to work on to change your world is to change your Self? Even more abruptly, is there any point at all in trying to shift our surroundings until we have shifted our inner world?

First of all, this is a new paradigm for me. Not that I have never experienced the organic process of changing naturally when you are spontaneously ready. I have experienced that many times over, when you are so ready for a shift that manifesting it is a necessity that could overcome any obstacle. When things are so clean inside and out that there is no more question. Just an answer. But I have never tried to make this a practice, and I often find myself in a place where I try to change things, rush others, stop some when truly, the winds are not there yet. And I feel it. YOU feel it. When you try hard and truthfully to generate something, make something happen and no matter how hard or honestly you try, it just does not work. That failure to manifest is often nothing but a sign that things are just not ready yet.

Does this mean that will power and hard work are useless? I think not. The way I feel this is that will power and hard work are both required to create an inner practice of aligning yourself with what you want to achieve. Use this energy to visualize, to feel, to align your heart and mind, to bring yourself to a place of certainty. Felt and experienced certainty, not theorized or intellectualized certainty. So often we try to feel with our heads, when we should feel with our hearts. And too often we try to act from our hearts, when we should act from our bellies.

All this is telling us – and ME – is that we should try on creating the space for change in ourselves, no matter what that requires. It is telling us that while it is important to keep an eye on the end-picture, we need to keep working now on creating the perfect foundation and environment for change. Talk to our hearts, build the belly and heart fires to allow the change to unfold from within, organically.

Surrender? That is probably what it really means. Not give up, but understand that deadlines and timelines are the play of our minds, wanting to show how much in charge they are. When they are not.

So can we allow our hearts to love that future we want to manifest, and our bellies to sustain the shock of the transformation we want to materialize? Can we allow ourselves to be the change we want to see in the (our) world?

Do we have the courage to wait?

Do we have the faith to trust?

Do we have the confidence to look within to act without?

Do we?

 

Do I?

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

You've been walking the ocean's edge, holdingup your robes to keep them dry...

Today, I was having lunch, then coffee with a lovely friend of mine who is just back from this amazing city that is Paris. She brought me back 2 little presents. One for me and one for me and the Lover. She will smile when she reads how I describe this. Anyhow, we started talking about how we are just so immersed in the present moment in our Lives these days, and that we wish we were independently wealthy to fully appreciate and dive into such experiences. Learning languages. Teaching yoga. Travelling to places that we feel pranically attracted to. So many things that would either have a cost, or require that we take time (but not money) off work.

There seems to always be that painful challenge in life where you either have time or money at a point in time, but that both resources, which are both needed to a certain extent, never can be managed or achieved at once.

And then we got to think… Why doesn't the Universe readily give you all the resources you need to fully manifest your potential in this lifetime? Why do you always need to work your way to something, in order to get to something else? And why does that rule just not apply to a minority of very lucky individuals, who seem to have been given both the gift of Time and Abundance at once?

So what is the point of never being able to fully immerse in the experience you feel you need to grow and develop all that you need to learn or work on? I will of course acknowledge the usual standard ‘perfect’ yogic answer, that you either don’t really need what you want, or that the work required to get there is what you actually need to derive your learning from. That sounds all really good and smart, but from a very pragmatic perspective, here is my issue. Where does a corporate job that takes up many hours, much presence and creates a lot of confusion and tension fit on my journey not too enlightenment (I don’t have that pretention) but to perfecting myself? Why does fitting a physical practice into a day require such pressure? Why does fitting a trip to meet old friends and dear family members create such a maze of decisions? Why can I not spend most of my time with my beloved to learn more about us, enjoy the presence of each other and learn from each other about who we individually are?

Why are there so many roadblocks on a daily and recurring basis between your Self and the Good? Why is there a shared social acceptance, for which even yogis have tried to find theories or justifications, that Life is not meant to be fun or filled with pleasure and leisure? Why have we all come to accept that once you become an adult, Life is just not as much fun anymore? And I personally don’t buy all the amazing theories that have been put together by philosophers, thinkers and yogis alike. Look at children. Why do we accept the fact that Learning and Playing is what should fill their days, week days and week ends alike, until pay-back time comes and they have to start being separated from fun all over again?

What can we do, as almost fully operating adults, to bring the fun back into our lives and refuse to accept the fact that LIFE SUCKS MOST OF THE TIME?????
I don’t have the beginning of an idea at this stage.

But I am working on it.
- I guess that finding a job that fills you with excitement is one thing.
- Making sure you don’t devote too much to work, no matter how much you love it, is probably another.
- Knowing what really matters in your Life is another.
- Winning the lottery is a great way, although it depends much on Ma Lakshmi.
- Spending time to really identify what rocks your boat and what makes sense on your path is super duper important.
- Reviewing whatever you think matters on a daily basis is required.
- Listening to your heart every morning when you wake up and every night when you go to bed is another.
- Letting your loved ones love you, and making time for you to receive and swim in that love is key from my perspective.
- Being creative to create new pockets of fun in your life is paramount.

For the rest, I hope to win the lottery and remain healthy and in LOVE, and enjoy that for at least a little while. Because I was thinking of the people who sadly saw the end of this incarnation in the crash of the flight from Rio to Paris early this week.

Some of them had probably worked a long time to afford that trip. Or some had just finally decided to stop it all and finally have fun. But maybe the lesson is that they waited too long?

That this trip that we all wish to take one day to claim reward for all the hardship in our lives should be taken today. Not tomorrow.

Today.

Maybe we should all leave our jobs at once. All of us. To render the system pointless and create a completely new paradigm.

That love and light and ecstasy is the natural rhythm of Life.

That we should not, collectively, have to work our asses off, in dirt mines or office cubicles, to eat, have a roof over our head, or attend school or trainings on things that are likely to change our lives. Time with our lovers and children and parents should not be subject to the pre-requisite of doing something that kills the little flame in your heart 8 to 12 hours a day.

There should be no prerequisite to ecstasy. There is no preparation for joy. It is happening now right here. In you!

NOW!


Rumi says...

You've been walking 

the ocean's edge, holding 

up your robes to keep them dry. 

You must dive naked under, 

     and deeper, 

           under, a thousand times deeper!