Finding Meaning

The search for meaning in today's sometimes meaningless world is a long, hard battle. With more information about everything readily available through a quick google search, it is almost as though the very meaning we seek has been breached by the endless amount of words written on the wildly proliferating internet sites, Twitter feeds, and Facebook updates. Victor Frankl wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning after suffering the Twenty-Century's greatest atrocity where he described the search for meaning as humanity's last freedom. He was a holocaust survivor who found that the people who made it through were the ones who were able to find meaning in their suffering. It was the search for meaning more than luck, physical prowess, intelligence or any other thing that was the deciding factor of survival in Fankl's view. The meaning that he held onto every day of that tortuous cycle of his life was that he wanted to live to tell the story of what happened and help people find meaning in their lives. We are all searching for meaning in the desperation of our lives, however, in all likelihood we are embarking on our search in dramatically less dire circumstances than Frankl. It does not make our own personal story any less valiant. In the search for purpose we may find the thread that pulls us out of years of depression, hopelessness, helplessness and a general sense of nihilism and fatalism. At the best we may find true God-inspiration for life.

The search for meaning in life is the essence of the spiritual path of yoga. You do not need to invent your own narrative, you can receive it from the timeless words of our fabulous Creator through the Holy Spirit within yourself. You can uncover the hidden message of your life and find the reason you are here with authenticity, integrity and inspiration. As you see through layers of illusion through the practice of yoga, you reveal the true essence of your own inner power and break through the endless cycle of meaningless fatigue. Every experience will be rich with the meaning of spiritual liberation, every moment ripe with the fruit of liberation! With this powerful torch burning within, the answers to the search for meaning will be evident in every breath of your life!!

Have faith! Do yoga.....Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Trish 

Finding Yourself in the midst of Challenge

Why is that in our minds holidays are tagged as being heart warming, when in reality they are often filled with the rare experience of 'intense fellowship' or simply put, confrontation?  There is often loss, heart ache, financial stress, loneliness, and dispair.  There is love, forgiveness, grace, and hope.  All of these things are swirlled together within us and  often swell into an overwhelming wave. We then try to navigate this while entertaining others or being guests to others.

Confrontation is a grey zone on the spiritual path. Should you fight your way out of a defeatist victim-mentality? Or should you take a few breathes to ventilate your hostility before taking your inner rage out on your fellow freeway drivers? When is it appropriate to stick up for yourself & when is it time to quietly wait out the storm?

Anger, whether my own or someone else's, has always been challenging for me. I remember the shock of experiencing the seething kind of backlash that years of unexpressed boundaries can bring about, and then, realizing that my anger was just that: mine. No matter how awful the situation, how many friends agree, how righteous you are, how indignant or cynical you become, no matter how grand and tragic the loss, whatever emotions you feel are always your responsibility. You always have a choice about how you respond to life.

The basic teaching of spiritual practice is to find yourself in the midst of your greatest challenge and stay. In moments where you find anger arising, try closing your eyes, reconnecting with your breathe & staying with the experience of you. See how it goes. What does this do? It at least breaks the cycle of adding fuel to the fire in the midst of a full-blown blaze. It at least gives you a little pause in an otherwise very sticky situation. It at least gives you an extra moment to find the strength to choose an enlightened action over the pattern of aggressively acting out, escaping into pleasure, or numbing-out in denial.

There is magic in staying with "the places that scare you". For in those truly empowering moments you bear witness to the law of impermanence. Whatever aries in your experience, no matter how solid and sticky, will change. All emotions flow if we don't hold onto them. Sooner or later, the seemingly solid righteousness of anger yields and gives way to the soft, forgiveness of peace and understanding. The greatest storm will pass and the sun will rise again another day.

Albert Einstein says that you cannot solve a problem from the same level of thinking that created it. And so it is. Anger cannot create peace. Itching the scab that started the whole conflagration won't end it. A middle way exists for this tempting emotion as well. The powerful choice to stay gives you the opportunity to create the space of transformation in your life today.

Namaste
Trish