Do you ever feel trapped in a state where you are going through the motions but you know you’re not fully engaged and not fully present? You appear functional on the surface, maintaining routines and tasks, but underneath, you're emotionally numb and disconnected. You feel chronically lazy, paralyzed by overwhelm, and mad at yourself for not following through with the purposeful things you had intended to do. Again. This could be a sign that you are functionally frozen. STUCK IN THE FREEZE Functional freeze is a specific term that describes our nervous system’s protective response of “freeze” (from the “fight, flight, freeze or fawn” responses) when it becomes a chronic, everyday state impacting your emotional and engagement faculties. It’s a natural, protective response for some of us but applied to perhaps less dangerous (than like a bear chasing you) situations such as the dread of difficult conversations or “walking on eggshells”-type relationships. The problem with those of us who get into this state is that we aren’t always aware of what's happening. This automatic, protective response may create feelings of tightness (maybe a knot in the stomach) and negative emotional responses, turning-inward on oneself, as if your true voice has also gone frozen. Overwhelm paralysis, chronic laziness, and emotional turbulence from planning-but-not-doing things even when you’re excited about it are typical of the functional freeze state. Photo by averie woodard on Unsplash Becoming aware of this nervous system response is the first step to getting yourself out of this stuck and debilitating feeling. Your nerves are stuck in freeze mode as a matter of survival. This could be a result of unresolved trauma in your past. It may be worthwhile to seek help in resolving the roots of this response.
Meanwhile, your nerves need to get unstuck. UNFREEZE YOUR NERVES Here's where kundalini yoga and meditation practices are immensely effective. Kundalini yoga, with its focus on breathwork and movement, can help regulate the nervous system and move the stuck energy that keeps us frozen. Meditation allows us to connect with our core self, furthering our awareness of the numbed emotions that need attention AND PROMOTING A REFRESHING THAW. By bringing these practices into your life, you can begin to heal the underlying causes of functional freeze and reconnect with vitality for a fully engaged life. Do you recognize this functional freeze in your life? What works for you to thaw and move forward? Do you have a regular practice to regulate your nervous system, boost your energy, and connect you with your core Being? Love, Anna SachKiret P.S. If this message resonated for you and you’d like to see more on this topic, hit reply and let me know! Sat nam 🙏
2 Comments
Feeling drained? Stuck in a funk? Maybe you’re feeling it right at this moment. Maybe you’ve been feeling it for a while. Or, maybe this is not you at all right now but you’ve been there. But we’ve ALL been there, feeling down in the dumps, in a state of fear, or dragged down by that dreaded sense of unworthiness. Your energy feels zapped, as if someone turned out your light. You feel dim, dull, not shiny, and filled with self-doubt. The good news is, you have the power to change this. I’m not talking about shopping with credit cards. I’m talking about charging up your energy– the power source for your light! Think: “When my light feels low, charge it up!” 💡💡💡 So how do you do that? By activating the power of your energy field. Let me explain. Let's start with a visual You know when you’re with someone who is a curmudgeon, a debbie-downer, an angry grump? They darken the space they enter, like they just brought in a dense, gray cloud into the room— and it feels heavy. On the other end of the spectrum, someone who is alive, dynamic and energized can change the mood of the room, brightening and uplifting everyone they encounter. Expanding the light! This is your "energy field" (also known as your aura) at work. Imagine it as a field of energy that surrounds you. This energy is influenced by your thoughts and emotions. When you're feeling down, this energy gets depleted. The dimming or brightening of your energy field happens unconsciously in the course of your day. Fortunately, you can learn to consciously expand your energy field, which can have a powerful impact on your mood and well-being. In the practice of kundalini yoga, there are breathing exercises, postures, movements, and meditations that specifically work on expanding your energy field. Some practices are long, and some are super short. I want to introduce you to a super short one that takes just 1 minute of your time. The Aura Charger (aka the ego eradicator) This is a simple breath meditation to charge your aura and cast away the heaviness so you can feel lighter, brighter and clearer. Practice this for 1 minute, 3 minutes, or more as needed— and charge yourself up to shine bright. Click the image below for this life-changing practice. And this is how you turn on your aura light switch. This one key alone will turn you around when you are down. It will put you in a better mood to change the trajectory on how you feel, how you perceive life, and how you choose to support your best Self. Like I said, life changing.
With gratitude+grace, Anna P.S. Do you have a go-to that quickly turns you around when you are down or have low energy? Reply back and let me know what it is. Or, if you don't already have one, let me know how The Aura Charger feels for you. Image by Moshe Harosh from Pixabay Do you feel overwhelmed?
If so, stop for a moment. Close your eyes and take a moment to check in. Where in your body do you feel the overwhelm? Do your nerves feel agitated? Does your head feel heavy and full, like a bobblehead, top-heavy, about ready to teeter head-first to the earth? How is your energy when overwhelm hits? Do you feel dull, exhausted, discouraged? What else? Give yourself a minute or so to check in with your body from head to toe. Notice what you feel where. Awareness is the first step towards resolution. What do you WANT to feel instead? Imagine how your body feels in this scenario. Visualize and feel your posture. Breathe into this renewed sense of Self. Now what? Consider these 4 essential tools and kundalini yoga-based remedies to conquer overwhelm and feel lighter, clearer and back on track.
Each of these practices offer a vital shift in energy, clarity and alignment, even when you’re not experiencing overwhelm. The best way to make these work for you is to practice when you don’t need it, so they’re available for you when you do. While breath, yoga, mantra, and presence isn’t exclusive to Kundalini Yoga, or to solving the seeming epidemic of overwhelm, they work on multiple levels at once to transform you at the physiological level, so you aren’t white knuckling your way through a state of overwhelm. It helps you stay in a more powerful state of mind to mitigate overwhelm in the future. It’s like setting the radio station to one you prefer to experience– one that promotes equanimity amidst all that is thrown at you. The purpose of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation is to help you tune into that radio frequency, allowing you to live in a material world as a more aligned and spiritual being. With grit and grace, Anna SachKiret P.S. - if you would like some meditations and kriyas to deal with overwhelm, email me for suggestions. I sense a beauty in this world, underneath all the noise, the damage, the fear. I sense a rich, deep earth nourishing and holding us, while our toxins try to hurt. I sense a bold fearlessness within each of us, begging to take the lead and break us out of the holds on our hearts. I sense love in the dark. I sense light finding its way through the cracks. I sense hope and freedom...... Our future is built on the gifts of each one of us. Not the unconscious gifts of forced "should be's" and false goals that do not truly align with us. The gifts that come from the very core of our being, that birthed us. Empowered gifts that hold no inner conflicts. A way of being that knows its path, its Truth. What are you doing to connect with that gift, those gifts, on a regular basis? Is that not the purpose and habit trajectory of our lives? Every day we connect with these gifts and, when we think we got it, keep going. For 40 days, 90, 120, 1000.....and gain mastery. Mastery over our subconscious minds, mastery over the noise, mastery over our external environments prodding, pushing, forcing its way upon you...no. Pause. Create pause. Create spaces. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe slow, deep, long.....claim your space.
the roles that I've adopted....mom, friend, sister, spouse, auntie, teacher, coach, my age, my race, my look. I am none of those things and all of those things. I am, I am. The meditation "I am, I am" is a wonderful reminder that I am. Period. Just as the tree just is, the worm just is, the fruit IS. As part of a whole...no. As the whole in one part. It is my favorite Rumi quote: "You are not a drop in the ocean but the entire ocean in one drop". Identifying as something isn't the depth of who you are. It's a container. As "mom", this container gives me anchors for my life journey: live as an example, nourish my children with love, wisdom, strength, food, water, clothing, shelter, care when they are ill and when they are not, support for their ups and downs, etc. Lest we flit around in the wind like a kite whose lost its holder, its tie-down, an anchor provides a temporary positioning whereby I can live and grow with presence, in the present. Like a biodegradable pot for my starter plant--it holds her and offers a simple guidance. She begins to extend her roots down and reach up towards the sun as a beginner of something....what IS this world? And what is this present moment? She grounds and she reaches, expands, breathes. And as she grows, grateful for the path and
"Untangled" by Lisa D'Amour, PhD, I expand to define our experiences as adults. Some of us may not have even mastered some of those teenage strands. Regardless, we are each on a journey of evolving strands. I may be further evolved on one strand but less so on another. And someone who I think is somehow "better" may be more and less evolved on opposing strands. It matters not. There is no judgment or comparison. There is only our experience. And, with awareness, we begin to appreciate our evolution of experiences.
Our American culture comes with a drive for competition. I'll focus on the one that calls for each of us to aim for our personal best. We compete against our own experiences to improve each time, to learn from our mistakes and failures, to lift ourselves back up with courage and compassion, to allow rest and reprieve as an active habit. There's a motivating force when seeking our personal best. I believe you can live in complete satisfaction and love with who you are and what you've achieved in this moment, today, this minute, WHILE ALSO seeking your personal best over time. There is no misalignment here to seek to evolve your experiences and become more elevated in consciousness through these evolutions, while also feeling "successful" in your present. When you seek to compete against others, your happiness is tied to an external presence outside your control. What is in your control is to develop and strengthen your habits, your physical and mental stamina, the edges of your own personal container-- where's the discomfort? how much will you push it today? Which strand are we evolving? Which needs attention today? I sense there's an understanding, a shift, a loving pull to connect with our inner wisdoms. I sense there's an openness to see it, feel it, embrace it. I sense there's change happening and, for those of us who connect deeply within with curiosity and awareness, bold and beautiful things await. And Are. Here. Now. I sense we are breathing more deeply, grounding with our nourishing roots and expanding from that place of connection. I sense love is winning. I trust. I breathe. I feel. I am. When I think about the decisions I've made in my life, there are some that bring me joy and pride and others that make me think 'what on earth was I thinking'?!? I can now reflect on those latter ones and realize I WAS, in fact, THINKING --and not feeling. How often do we know deep down what we are meant to do yet we ignore those inner messages for our brain's more logical-seeming demands? We don't want to be looked upon as irrational or --gasp-- emotional! No, do what people expect and can make sense of. Right. That's what your ego keeps saying. To be clear, I wouldn't change a thing about these past decisions because I know they were the lessons I needed at the time.....AND at present. To be able to reflect back on those experiences and how my decisions shaped my life, I can honor those lessons today. Today I'm in a space where I can listen self-compassionately and understand the message, know how it has shaped my values and beliefs--- and make better decisions going-forward that support and develop a more elevated experience, a more true-to-me experience, an evolved experience, a purposeful, life-fulfilling experience. In other words: Joy. Peace. Freedom. To get to where I am today, I had to look deeply at those feelings I ignored or stuffed down or escaped from through whatever self-sabotaging means I could. It's scary to start such an endeavor-- but it's so worth it! Clearing old feelings by meeting them stops them from haunting you further. It frees you from the subconscious reactions, responses, and personality malfunctions that make you wonder, 'why did I do or say that?'. Instead you stand tall, get clear, and feel assured in your ability to meet all challenges (even emotional ones) and are able to create a life you were born to love. Nowadays, I'm looking for: More fun. More openness. More healing energies in everyday life. More gratitude. A shift out of 'the way things have always been done' into a more free and loving world. I can choose this life that I desire, making new decisions that inspire and uplift and hold me in my Truth. I can listen to and talk with my emotions safely because I now know clearly that they are the voice of my soul, guiding me and crying out to protect me. I need only pause, breathe, and quiet the noise to hear.......and then decide. I am queen of my sovereignty. I decide. Wealth Consciousness or Poverty Consciousness? Which will it be?
It's interesting to wonder about these two opposing states of consciousness. Of course you'd CHOOSE Wealth Consciousness, as in you'd like to think you have that. Maybe you do. But, in actuality, where are you now? You might be inclined to think you're somewhere in the middle. Sometimes I can feel so strongly about manifesting something or someONE that it happens and I'm not surprised. Other times, I try to talk myself into believing I CAN or I WILL HAVE and yet my body doesn't get the message.... as they say, "it's all in your head". That doesn't work. Lastly, there are times when I feel downright pathetic and I can't stop myself from believing in the limiting thoughts. Poverty. Conviction matters. I recently invested in a serious coaching program to help me create my Life Coaching business. I'd already started the seeds of this way back when but, saying I'm doing something and actually doing it are two different things. Making a truly effective business requires commitment, effort, consistency, experience, ......and a strong mindset. The part of this program I didn't realize was going to be so important for me was the mindset shifting into Wealth Consciousness. Now I know that that middle space was really not so-- I just had moments where I unintentionally thought something with conviction and, voila, I manifested. At least, I did recognize my ability to do so--- I CAN do this if I can make the consciousness shift stick. Like everything, this is a work in progress-- you find success, you find another challenge, you peel back another layer, another success, another challenge, another layer, and on and on. The best part is, with each success and each challenge that breaks through another deep-seated layer, IT GETS EASIER TO DO AND TO BELIEVE. AND..... YOU SHIFT YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS. This isn't just about money wealth (or poverty). It's about connection with others, connection with Self, growth/self-development, joyful living, time, love, etc. Notice where you are in these areas-- are you in Wealth or are you in Poverty? Notice what's working for you and what's not. Notice what you manifest. What you give attention to is what grows! Your beautiful life is waiting for you. Seek Wealth. Shift your consciousness. Don't know how? Ask me! Here's a hint: start with getting in touch with what you DesIre. Here it is, the last day of 2021. And...... it's been awhile.....
I've thought of you, dear reader. I've wondered if you've missed me. I've let myself believe you haven't. What does it matter.....any of what I share? Truth is, it's been a tough year and yet, I can still say: Life Is Good! I can still thrive in my deep knowing that I am enough and I have the answers for my fulfilled life. It's UNSHAKEABLE. Back to this later..... I can KNOW that I felt like you haven't missed me and, at the same time, I can KNOW that that is a story-- an illusion --I've made up in my head. This isn't about you and me-- it's about my need to feel seen and heard..... to not feel rejected.....to matter. Who must fulfill that for me? Me. Knowing all this gifts me with the unshakeable steadiness, even as the emotions ebb and flow sometimes wildly. Even as I don't always know how to fulfill that for myself at any given moment. The story comes from one of my longtime, emotional battles that pesters me with thoughts of "how could you possibly matter?" I've overcome much of this (--thank God!) yet what took years of conditioning doesn't just drop itself from my repertoire of triggered reactions. Consciously, I can insist on another story...... I can ask: perhaps you HAVE missed me and you've felt ABANDONED? What is my responsibility here? What does it matter.....any of what I share? There it is again-- "how could you possibly matter?", that little voice asks. Honestly, I KNOW I MATTER TO YOU. Because you are here, reading. And each of our voices matter. I know that YOU MATTER TO ME because I value your sense of peace and joy. I feel passionate about other people's and our humanity's JOY. I value the vibes we each share in this world to uplift one another. AND, I'VE MISSED YOU! There are writers and vloggers that I enjoy following for the information and peace of mind they bring me. I know, when they have not shared anything new in awhile, I feel SAD, almost a SUBTLE DESPAIR. Perhaps abandonment is too harsh. Yes, it's more subtle. EMPTY. Like i relied upon them to fill my cup. (For another writing but: It makes me realize that, as with everything in life, EXCESS of ANYTHING can be dangerous. They post day after day and sometimes within hours. You gobble up their beautiful voices. You feel a sense of solidarity. Yet, one should be wary of falling dependent upon another to fill one's cup. With GRIT and GRACE, these voices share to create connection and provoke thought. But the idea is not to overconsume....... CONSUME AND THEN DO SOMETHING. CREATE!). Coming back to this idea of UNSHAKEABLE sense of SELF-WORTH and SELF-RELIANCE. I have it. I'm thrilled and both grateful & great-full to have it. I want to share it if you are seeking it. This is why what I share matters. To anyone looking for it, Ending 2021, I am clearing out my inconsistencies and excuses to showing up regularly. I CHERISH YOU. And I cherish my own Soul. That is all we can ask of one another.
Indeed, some of us don't know how to let go and let loose. It is very uncomfortable. But just as the polarity is, we mull in the dismal or constraint and we lose balance in life. We teeter into, dare I say, darkness.
So for those of you who are on the proverbial "dark side" of fun, let's start by acknowledging this. Awareness is the first step to all healing. Let's start to breathe-- l o o o o o o o o o n g, deeeeeeeeep breaths. Inhaling and exhaling through our nostrils. Feeling the breath press the diaphragm muscle down with each inhale, bringing that air deep into our bellies and then up to our chest and shoulders. With each exhale, allowing the chest to fall, drawing our navel towards the spine, pulling that diaphragm up for a complete breath out. And continue with this breath until you feel calm. Now keep breathing and ask yourself what's bugging you? Let's call whatever holds you back "fear". Be it actual fear of something or someone or an idea or negative self-talk or shame or guilt or anger or frustration, confusion, neediness or depression or some trauma or trigger that perhaps you cannot even pinpoint-- or maybe you can. Let's call it all "fear" for now. After that beautiful, calming breathing you've done (which you can continue for as long as you like), think about this "fear" from this safe space. Do be sure you are in a safe space! Keep breathing, bring the fear to your awareness and begin to notice the sensations and feelings that come up. What does it feel like? Where do you feel it? Can you name this feeling? Is it stress? Is it grief? Low self-worth? Imposter syndrome? Stay with this until you can get a good sense of what it is you're feeling. Ask this feeling, why are you here? What do you need me to know? What are you trying to protect me from? What happens if I don't listen to you? I know this doesn't sound like having fun but stay with me here..... Now, consider what the opposite of this feeling would be? The opposite of the negative feeling. What would it look like? Allow yourself to feel it as if it is happening. What sensations arise? Where do you feel it in your body? Cherish it. Believe in it. Hold on to this feeling. Stay here until you've embodied the feeling-- meaning you are getting all those juicy, positive vibes from this feeling you created with your thoughts. This is a little more fun, right? Now ask yourself, what do I need to do to get to here? Listen in the silent space for your answer. Allow it to come from your gut, your heart, your feelings..... in other words your Soul. The language of your Soul is emotions. If it feels like you are in your headspace (the realm of the logical ego), go back to your feelings and then ask again. What do I need to do? Oftentimes these answers will come instantly. And oftentimes your logical mind might voice its opposing opinion. Try to stay with those initial, instinctual responses. The ones from your depth of heart and soul. Alot of times, you are already starting to feel better and lighter, even before the solutions step. You may need to stay with these first steps for a bit or revisit them again before you can continue. The important healing has started: you are stopping to take notice. Your Soul needed you to listen and, feeling heard, you will begin to feel better. But let's finish this..... (If you need to do this multiple times to get past certain steps, it's totally alright!) Now, your beautiful mind gets to help with this last step. Take action. Heed the answers your Soul brought to light and figure out how to make it happen. Have compassion for yourself. Know that sometimes you might not take your Soul's advice but, if you do that, acknowledge that you are purposely choosing not to do that. Again, awareness is key. You might act against your answers because a) you're not ready, you're feeling fear again--maybe another aspect of fear or b) you feel better just from the earlier steps and so you no longer feel the need to act. Either way, know that this "fear" voice will persistently come to you until you listen and act. It may take another form, in another situation, at a different time, but heed its needs you must, at some point. You want to not only feel better at the moment; you want to completely heal. Now we're having fun. It's from this space of self-awareness, self-compassion, and self-healing that you build a strong sense of self-love. And from self-love --true love of yourself-- you can let go and have fun! You can strike the right balance in life because you don't actually want extreme highs and extreme lows. In your self-aware state, you can enjoy life on your terms, for your whole Self. And isn't that fun? Yes. It is. Inspiring, powerful, reflective, alliterative, genius. Not to mention a profound reminder of the power of art, voice, youth, and the message of unity. Thank you, Amanda Gorman, for this beautiful presentation of your insightful picture on our country and democracy.
I love to observe the parallels between our macro and micro worlds. Micro--our work on connecting with our inner compass; sorting through large and subtle internal, historical and ancestral traumas; finding our outward expression; and creating an empowered life aligns with all that must be done to unite our people, country and our place in the greater world--the macro. In the trials, the polarities, the conflicts seen in the world, if we pay attention we can see and feel these same struggles in ourselves. We work on ourselves powerfully to create powerful change beyond us, no matter what that looks like. Each of our contributions matter; each of us matter. As the newly sworn-in US President stated, unity amidst a deep divide is critical. Alignment and balance within ourselves require this attention as well. Notice your inner conflicts. notice the divides where your heart and mind are at odds. The inaugural poem. I've never truly felt the need to memorize and recite poetry but this one..... yes. With highest respect and hopes that I've captured it correctly,* I've transcribed the poem here: (edited 1/21/2021) "The Hill We Climb" Amanda Gorman, poet laureate When day comes, we ask ourselves: "Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?" The loss we carry, a sea we must wade, we braved the belly of the beast. We've learned that quiet isn't always peace; and the norms and notions of what "just is" isn't always Just-ice. And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it, somehow we do it, somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming President, only to find herself reciting for one. And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge a union with Purpose to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: That even as we grieved, we grew; That even as we hurt, we hoped; That even as we tired; we tried; That we will forever be tied together, victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division. Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid. If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we've made, That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare. It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit. It's the past we step into and how we repair it. We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith, we trust. For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption. We feared in its inception we did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour. But within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves. SO -- while once we asked, "How could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?" Now we assert: "How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?" We will not march it back to what was but move to what shall be, a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens but one thing is certain.... if we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children's birthright. So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left. With every breath in my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the golden hills of the West; we will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution; we will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states; we will rise from the sunbaked South. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover. In every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country; our people diverse and beautiful. We'll emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it, for there is always light if only we're brave enough to see it, if only we're brave enough to be it. THERE IS ALWAYS LIGHT.....LET'S SEEK IT OUT CONTINUOUSLY, AND THEN "...LOVE BECOMES OUR LEGACY". *I'll edit once I see the poem released by Amanda Gorman. Ever since I read My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem and started a book discussion group on it, I keep pondering his idea of culture and how do we change our culture? What even IS culture, and our culture here in the US? What do we like, what do we not like? Honoring the many great things that created this culture to which many immigrants fled to be a part of, what can we recognize as unjust and ill-conceived? What do we need to weed out, what do we want to change and how? From my interpretation on the reading, I believe culture starts from within. Trauma --both subtle and overt, current, historical and ancestral-- shape who we are, how we respond, and our view of reality. These traumas form what looks like our personality. Trauma that impacts the family looks like family traits. Trauma that impacts a people looks like culture. Changing a culture would require the desired change in "the tribe"...... and that change happens from a spark--one voice that projects and touches the hearts and minds of its neighbors and beyond. And, a major shake-up certainly helps create space for those voices to land. Enter our 2020 experience. What a shake-up to create the perfect environment for change!! Person by person, community by community, and in the age of the Internet, more potential for reach far and wide. Are you ready to open up to this change? A change for social justice and a culture that creatively loves and supports one another? Starting with self-healing and turning inwards to be truthful with ourselves and to know our Truth, we can begin to grow into a personality that values daily practice of love for all living things. The more of us that chooses healing and builds our own capacities, the more that spreads, and the more it can change culture. A culture that cares, supports and lives curiously with others through conversation, connection, public policy and more. MLK Jr said, "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness". I think this is what we get to discover in ourselves in listening for our Truth. In healing and clearing so we can hear our inner voice of peace and equanimity and vision and justice for all. Personally, the more I listen to the many new voices creating podcasts and read the writings of the people who inspire me, the people I admire, the models who pave a path for me to see my own path, the more I know that if I listen closely and stay deeply connected with the true depth of meaning and value for my life, I will be like these people I admire. Only, it'll be in my own way and with my own voice. It's frightening and exhilarating at the same time.
For sure, this is only done in concert with the necessary work of self-healing. It has taken some years to get here but, thankfully, within these years I have felt dramatic progress steadily along the way and very often it is this progress that motivated the next progress. You need not look that far ahead, simply the next step into "right action". These are ongoing practices and continued seeking of community and like-minded voices-- as well as those who do not think like me --are a cornerstone for momentum. It is, in fact, often the voices of the latter that give me deeper pause and reflection. For the dichotomy of thoughts or the polarities of life is what often creates the most clear spotlight on vital matters. It is that which evokes the strongest of emotions that sometimes was/is the necessary spark to create the most impactful change or shift in thinking. This year, in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr, I listened to a podcast with host Marianne Williamson and her guest, MLK Jr's daughter Reverend Bernice King. Through this interview, I kept hearing the message that activism is part of our work here and that MLK's words on sacrifice were akin to the sacrifice of Jesus and other such stories of heroic peoples. MLK said: "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable..... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals". This makes me think of my recent journal writing on "what we give up" and the fear of losing privileges, comfort, convenience, and a way of life to which we've become accustomed. What must we sacrifice? Are we prepared to struggle? Can we understand that struggle can simply mean our own personal angst in dealing with any sort of change, and ultimately that struggle creates a positive change and depth within us? Marianne and the Reverend King end the interview with the idea that, while we look to our history of great people who sacrificed and led the way, these days the sacrifice and leadership is truly collective. Perhaps that can feel like a relief to those of us who feel yet ill-equipped for a huge, solo entry into boldness but still wish to pursue social justice and change in our world. But step forward we must. As a collective. As the Reverend Bernice King said, it must be a way of life, these steps for justice. What would that look like for you? Still the start of 2021 and things seem to be taking shape through positive vibrational currents in the minds of many more of us. I feel it and I see it happening. I see that collective altruism and multi-level leadership or leadership by abilities-- what is your best role? MLK Jr Day is a day of service and celebration. "Give voice to your heart"* especially on this day, but let it be a spark of renewal and commitment for the year going forward. It takes every one of us to change a culture. I trust that these are the individual steps within a collective that will create a brighter future for and with our youth. For and with my children and all the children of this and the coming generations. What a wonderful way to invoke the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. *My new 2021 calendar is from Istandforlove.com created by Sarah Love and today's message is "give voice to your heart". Apropros for this day. XO |
AuthorI am the Essential Soul Mama. I am a mama, a soulful-spiritual teacher, an intentional storyteller, and a lover of stories of all kinds, in all forms. I write about emotions, parenting, natural health options, mind-body-soul connections, and anything that elevates our lives. Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|