Dear Revolution Community,
Last week my car gave up its life. Over 20 years old, musty, peeling and pathetic against extreme temperatures. It had broken down before, but always in a way that seemed fixable. Under a big full moon, it quietly rolled to the roadside in front of a farm, and I finally walked away from it.
I had been resisting, paying for repairs, arguing with loved ones about needing a new one, trying to will it to keep going. As I waited on the farm for the tow, I looked out onto the big field that had witnessed so many seasons. I took a big breath in feeling the impetus of a larger shift in my life that would require me to accept change.
We often resist this stage, clinging to how we expected things to unfold. But discomfort, breakdown and even disappointment are often sacred initiations.
When we ask for expansion, life brings the contraction that births it. Right before you birth something really big, you may notice (in retrospect) a nearly intolerable contraction that occurred right before. When one births a child into the world, the womb forcefully contracts to push it out.
The end of that car made way for a new one, better aligned with the person I need to be to step into the life I’ve been calling in. It reminded me that our reality matches what we’re inwardly willing to accept. That’s why we practice yoga: to dismantle what resists. The parts of us programmed to resist abundance, love, peace, friendship, passion, help, the list goes on.
Whatever isn’t aligned with the soul’s truth (atman/ ishvara/ purusha), will eventually be stripped away. Sometimes gently. Sometimes forcefully. But, either way, what is no longer meant for you will go.
Down the road, a neighbor’s house burned down last year. A tragedy, yes, but now a beautiful new home stands in its place only it’s three times the size. This is the dance of life: creation and destruction. Yoga invites us to stay steady through the shifting tides.
Over time, our yoga practice helps us cultivate that steadiness, until the outside world reflects the stability we’ve found within.
In Little Buddha, Siddhartha (the Buddha) sits beneath the Bodhi tree on the cusp of enlightenment. There he faces the demon Mara, who tried to tempt him away from truth. His work was to stay steadfast, peaceful and resolute in the nature of the self, when the world around him was tempting him towards distraction. Mara sends his beautiful daughters to awaken desire, visions of crashing seas, falling meteors and armies firing weapons to provoke fear, and finally, a reflection of Siddhartha’s own ego. Still he does not waver. He sees it all as an illusion and transcends.
The Yoga texts remind us: the path will challenge us with illness, doubt, craving, distraction and fear not to break us, but to reveal what is real.
If you’re feeling the pressure of the pull right now, come to your mat. Let it be the place where you reconnect to what is steady inside you. Let your breath remind you: this moment too is passing, and something more aligned is already on its way.
Peace and Love,
Amanda and the good folks at Revolution Yoga
Originally shared in our July 2025 newsletter.