Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Universal Reciprocity

Something that has occurred to me is the thought that the universe has answered an unintentional call to arms in relieving me of my old job. In a way, I have put negative energy into the universe regarding my job-whether that had been the constant dreading of going to work, bitching to my parter (a true saint and unbelievable life mate) about work goings-on, or just general inability to allow myself to feel like I was worthy and talented to be in my position. In all of this energy, a solution (not ideal) presented itself and solved what I could not.

You can probably chalk this up to yoga/chakra/new age BS if you're the cynical type, but I think of it as my higher power. Not a deity or God or similar, but a force unknown and imperceivable that is the care taker of all us mortals. What a crazy idea, right? It is the test of the power of positive thought (or in my case the consequence of negative thought).

In yoga, we seek Ahimsa (non-harming) in everything we do. This is not just the literal desire not to hurt one another, but the practice of not harboring Ill-will and negative thoughts and ideas toward others, animals, things, jobs, anything!

Impossible, yes!?! How do we begin to wrap our heads around not having negative judgements/thoughts? It's been said and is cliche, but we live in a society where the first 10-15 minutes of any newscast runs a list of murders, robberies, corporate/wall street scandal and Hollywood gossip. It's very juicy stuff and usually more interesting to the ego of the viewer to take in, but year after year of taking in all this negativity, don't our souls need a rest?

Beyond the simple practice of Ahimsa, we strive to acknowledge when these thoughts come up and let them go in order to access how we can improve for the next situation. The key word in any life situation is PRACTICE. If you don't get it right the first time, try again, and again, and again and again.

How have you practiced your own non-harming today? Difficult, yes? I don't think anyone said this would be easy;)


-Namaste

Wipe it clean

There is something about new beginnings that is all at once revitalizing and horrifying. Like diving deep and realizing that you can't breath underwater.

How do you release where you've been to allow freedom in new experience? It has been one week since I had a major life shift (losing my job) and luckily I haven't, nor do I even care to, jump off a building or fire bomb my former employer. I like to think that I communicated to the universe long enough that I was unhappy with my job and the universe stepped in and handled what I could not.

Whether that happened or I was foolish enough to think the mistakes I made would go unnoticed are beyond my comprehension. What I do know is that something amazing happened that is now requiring of me so much Svadhyaya (self-study) that I cannot turn a blind eye to myself like I have for the majority of my adult life. It took losing my job to realize just how imbalanced my perception of Self has become-through work, friendships, relationships, commitments and everything else that collides in my life.

I can't pretend that this blog will do anything more than serve as journal masturbation (if that is even possible), but I hope to find clarity within myself as I slowly turn each page of this new chapter of my life.

Right now, all I want to make sure is that I put pants on every day . . .