2020 Vision: Lessons for the future- part 1

 Today is December 31, 2020. What a famously wild and unpredictable year it has been! Filled with extreme "bad" and extreme "good". The polarities of dark and light somehow converging to create a crisper picture....Vision.

A Reflection on Boundaries

Just like any day, this day is no different. Except..... It is a largely-recognized "day to note", as are major holidays, the solstices, the equinoxes, and other specially-noted days.  For me, these are days for reflection. What is the symbolic significance of this day? What does it mean to me? In a way, it sets a symbolic boundary for us. A bookend to a year of unbelievably heart-wrenching and touching stories alike.

In general, I've often struggled with overwhelm and a sense of "free floating" (not in a good way). As a creative --which, by the way, we all are-- I've come to understand that setting our own restrictions around a project, a practice, a goal, etc. is important to the process. These are not limitations of the Self but healthy boundaries that keep us rooted and stable, and from which our ideas and creations can emerge and flourish with an amazing sense of freedom. 

I've also come to understand that the tools we've picked up through lessons of life-- intentionally and by chance --are part of our personal boundaries. As babies and toddlers do, we use our senses and our will to feel and test the boundaries. What are the limits? Where am I comfortable? Where do I (ad)venture to push across those lines? What do I do if what I thought was right for me, in and out of my boundary (or comfort zone), actually isn't? And when you feel yourself looking at other people's boundaries-- and/or perhaps feeling judgment on yours --breathe and honor the feeling. Then find a way to let it go. Feel your inner fire burn it up and, like a phoenix, turn the ashes into a radiant bird of self-love. Bottom line: your boundaries are personal.

I feel myself currently riding that edge as I process the revelations that have come to light this year about this transformational yoga I practice and teach. And the concepts connected to it. Like a lifeline for me and many others I know, it has given me the tools to turn judgment into birds of Empowerment, to know Truth where I used to only see lies disguised as reality, causing pain and self-deprivation. Ideas and practices that have been masterfully synthesized by a predator but, in pieces, are not his original work. I know the effectiveness and I focus on what I know has worked. Still, a process to sort through some levels of blind acceptance to get to what is real and right for me. In truth, we blindly accept in many aspects of life where we have given over our power to another-- not in a negative sense but as an awareness. For instance, to our doctors, the farmers, our government..... We can always take this power back.

Akara Numerology is one of those gray areas for me in terms of how it came to be. (Perhaps you, Reader, are familiar and can shed light for me?). In any case, it has always resonated and landed for me, better than astrology. Plus, I love numbers. It is, in fact, an effective boundary for me-- it can expand or look different beyond me but here, now, for me, it is what it is and it's enlightening. I accept its structure and meaning and use it to help me reflect on life. It can create powerful connections to make difficult situations, thoughts, and ideas palatable and, even more, divinely rich in depth and breadth. Such a wonderful tool to reflect on an insane year and contemplate what comes next.......

Aligned with the numbers of 2020, my relationships, connections, clarity on what's important to me and, of course, big open-heartedness highlighted for me "boundaries".  Healthy boundaries feel like a swaddle of warmth and motherly love. Truth. A lesson from 2020.