healing, part 2

So how do we heal?
Having a yogapractice has taught me several things that help me on the path of healing.

When we enter into a posture we are taught to feel the breath, stay in the body, not get caught up with any goal and instead just notice how sensations arise and pass away. Being in a pose or moving from one pose to another becomes a rich exploration of our inner landscape and the realization that our bodies are not static forms, but processes. All structures change over time.

Healing has to do with allowing that change and not getting stuck in trying to fix the situation because it is uncomfortable or even painful. It is natural for us to try to avoid pain and discomfort; it is wired into our systems for survival, but somewhere along the line, we have gotten stuck in an idea that are lives are flawed whenever pain arises. So we struggle to solve and fix and we get in the way of the natural path of healing.

It is very understandable, that when we feel pain, we want to get away.
Pain is no fun!
But it is my feeling that we in the western world especially have gotten caught in fixing symptoms to avoid pain, discomfort, disease and basically to avoid that our lives change.
Sometimes when we really are asked to listen to our bodies, we realize that the language of the body and the breath is so much wiser than any thoughts we could have around what is going on. The more we speculate the more lost we get.
And when we give up the fight and go deeper we experience that everything breaks down in to movements of energy in and around the body. Pain isn't solid. The body isn't solid. The world we live in isn't solid.

For many years I overruled what my body was telling me. I practiced yoga and meditation, but, and this may sound strange, in a very disembodied way. Not supported from the inside out, but driven by fear of not being good enough, beautiful enough, strong enough, capable enough if I didn't adhere to this physical regimen. As I write these words, I almost feel a little bit like I'm selling out. But it is the truth.

These "accidents" in my life...are my greatest teachers. I put up these little marks there to signify my point, that our lives are the way they are. And whatever flows in to our life experience, we can choose to learn from or not. In that way are life is never flawed. Always rich.

But I admit it is a tricky and narrow path to receive and feel our lives without manipulating. To listen, without becoming passive. So the main practice here is to not manipulate the situation. To trust the process and to really honestly, openly anything I can to stay in my body and aid that process.

It is an act of unconditional love.
A bit like when we have a hard time, and there is good friend who understands how to just listen. Not judge. Not make any conclusions. Openly and lovingly listening. And maybe pointing to areas in our lives that we weren't aware of.

Love means not knowing. I don't know. I act and I don't know.Or I sit still and I don't know.
I am willing to explore and that is the ONLY way to live our lives in a deeply creative way.

I am grateful for my experience with disease and pain. I would never have learnt what I have now experienced from the inside out without it. There is no way to learn about life other than live it.

And as a teacher ... what a gift.

I will write more. Now I will prepare for my workshop tomorrow. My heart soars.

I apologize for any errors in spelling :-)