Your Gift to the World

“This is for me,” you think when you come to yoga or sit down to meditate. “Finally some ME time,” you sigh as you settle in.

Maybe you practice because you want to feel better about yourself. As if by practicing you’re a good person. Or maybe you practice because you want to feel better inside yourself. You get up and your legs are open, your back doesn’t ache, you don’t seem so stressed. 

All of these are valid, useful reasons to practice.

You probably think you’re doing it all by yourself, all for yourself.

You think practice is for you. It is. And it is so much more.

Your practice is a gift you give to the world.

Troubled Times

When we look upon the world we see so much darkness: greed, corruption, struggle, and strain.  We feel the effects of disconnection, isolation, forgetfulness, unconsciousness.  We sense the global outrage and, feeling deeper, know it to be heartbreak.  We know grief for humanity, our planetary Mother, and all her creatures, landscapes, and beauty.

When we look into our lives we know ones who are suffering.  Some learning to live with the unimaginable, others learning to die with dignity.  We feel rage and heartbreak.  Despondent and hopeless. 

Practice Changes Things

We turn to practice as a soothing balm, or maybe a break.  We know that practice changes things, however briefly.

It changes how you feel inside yourself.

It changes how you feel about yourself

It changes, then, how you meet another.  

Now you meet them with fresh eyes, open to see them anew in their innate goodness and human struggle.  Now you greet them with a soft heart. A heart wide enough to embrace more of who they are with out bringing your ideas of rightness, fear, control or limitation to their natural expression.  Now you meet them as a member of our shared human family.

It changes your capacity to witness the darkness without having to run away. 

It changes your capacity to be resilient and to stay peaceful in the eye of the storm. 

It changes how you move in the world so that you move from peace, not fear or anger.

It changes your relationship with acceptance and justice.  Reminding you that your freedom and my freedom are the same.

It changes you. 

But do not forget, as you change, you change the world.

Quite literally…

Your practice changes the world.

Not All Can Practice

So we show up for practice because it changes the world. 

And we show up for practice because it is a great privilege to lend ourselves to turning the world towards more peace, ease, and consciousness. 

We show up for practice because with the privilege is the responsibility to use our practices to help alleviate suffering in ourselves and in others. 

And we practice because not everyone can or will. 

Some do not have the resource of time or attention. 

Some do not have access to teachers or communities of support.

Some are mired in addiction,  flooded by grief, boxed inside their anger and greed.

Others are bound by limitation of body.  Illness. Injury.  

Some do not have safety or shelter, food or protection.  

Some work so hard to survive, that practice is not possible.

And some simply have not yet felt the call inwards.  They have no interest in touching the vital, shimmering Mystery at the heart of life.

Therefore, we practice for them. 

For all of them: those who would practice if they could, those who don’t care, even those who would be mortified if the knew what we were doing.  And though they may never know it, our practice is transforming all of us.  

A Web of Connectedness

Our practice weaves an invisible web of love, peace and ease.  With practice, we mend unseen threads of connection back into a matrix strong enough to withstand others’ forgetfulness. A matrix strong enough to hold even those who fiercely guard their isolation.  This matrix of interconnection is Consciousness.

Consciousness is infinite

Consciousness is all pervasive

Consciousness resides in us, as us.

We practice to bring more of it to the surface. 

There is urgency to practice, but not haste.  There is no time like this moment to connect with yourself and another. No time but now to bring more peace into the world. 

In the darkest days of the year, please remember that your practice is a gift to this troubled world.

May there be Peace

May there be Peace

May there be Peace

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti