Dear Yogis,
I’ve run a business for a long time now and every time we entered the “next phase”, as I liked to call it, where there is a sudden uptick in the growth of our community, things would seem like they were falling apart behind the scenes.
The old systems stopped working and if it wasn’t dealt with immediately chaos and terrible stress would ensue. The first couple of times this went down there would be an inward panic not knowing how we would get through it or how to reorganize things. I would ask myself, “OK is this where all it ends?”
With experience I no longer think like that. Over time I viewed these periods of “chaos” as opportunities for proactive growth. A time to reorganize, to get more efficient, to become more effective at what and how we were serving. To reconnect and remind myself of my value system.
I realized that just because things had to change outside, my inner steadiness didn’t have to change. Because things outside are always changing to different degrees. Tackling the reorganization of a business from a centered place always created incredible outcomes.
And let me tell you when running a business not a day goes by without things changing, having to troubleshoot, restructure, or find ways to innovate and get better. I know a lot of professions are like this but I feel it is informing this moment for me so I wanted to share my experience with you all.
Growth comes with pain and difficulty and then we seem to move on and almost forget. All those moments of huge, painful change you thought you couldn’t get through but did are a natural part of life.
Remember your new teeth pushing through? The pain of your legs growing longer? The awkwardness and terribleness of puberty? What it was like after the first breakup? The major illness? For some the first year of marriage? The first kid? The first death of someone you knew? The first big reversal of luck?
Life can be really beautiful but it’s also no picnic. When everything “as we know it” ends, scatters, and disperses it can leave us feeling like there is nothing we can do. Helplessness, a feeling of a lack of control, and experiencing loss can be really hard to go through. But with tools from a yoga practice how much we suffer, in many cases, can be a choice.
This is what many wisdom traditions teach. In every moment you have a choice to be present or tap out. Presence can do three important things:
One, it reveals all the beauty of the moment that you are in that can simultaneously exist with terrible moments others are having.
Two, it allows you to move with focus, clarity, grace and yes less suffering through the very terrible moments you are having.
Three, it releases you from the choke hold of the previous moments that were good or bad so you can experience the brand new birth of the next moment.
Presence isn’t checking out. It is checking in during the good times and during the terrible times. Often those terrible times are part of a big shift that is coming. A big change that is meant for you. For most of us this is the first pandemic we are being personally touched by. If we stay present then the whole experience of this shift, this change, this pain, will be different.
Did you know that when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly it is horrific? Their whole body literally disintegrates and melts into goo to rearrange into a butterfly. Bet you didn’t know what was going on in that cocoon.
Let this period be a cocoon for you. The grieving process you’re experiencing now will bring up a cascade in the neural connections of all the other traumas, losses, reversals and disappointments you’ve experienced and haven’t fully processed. That’s a lot to move through. But, for those of us who are socially distancing, here we are with the time and space to move through it all and be with it all while it comes up. When all the material distractions get taken away here we are with ourself and an opportunity.
Yogis are often praying for things like patience, peace, tolerance, steadiness. Well, you’re locked at home with whoever you’re locked in with. How is that working out for you? Isn’t this a great time to practice getting good at all those things? What does your communication look like? What does your diet look like? What does your daily ritual look like? What do your individual moments look like?
You have the choice to reorganize now, to refocus and to trash all those systems that are no longer serving the new paradigm. These choices will define what we come out of the cocoon as when this is all over.
Are we going to let this be what takes down what is permanent in us? The true self? Good news it can’t. The yogis teach that the material world cannot cut, maim, kill, or alter that most essential part of you. So you always have a space to tap into that is safe.
Join us online to restructure your daily schedule to temper what’s going on outside and make it easier to stay present. In Ayurveda you don’t serve a whole plate of chili peppers doused in chili oil for dinner. It would be unpalatable and very difficult to digest. You mix it with cooling vegetables, herbs and fats to temper the spice. Life is REALLY spicy right now. What are you doing to temper it so you can digest the moments you’re in?
Come meditate and talk philosophy with us in the morning. Take a class to chill out the nervous system during the day with us. Close your evening with a Yoga Nidra practice so it’s easy to fall asleep.
You’ve got this. Your community is still here, albeit online, to hold you up and we can get through it together. Entry and instructions into our virtual studio are all available on our website www.revolution-yoga.com
Reach out if you need absolutely anything. Food, herbs help and we will come help.
In love,
Amanda and the good folks at Revolution Yoga
Originally shared in our April 2020 newsletter.