Love is a timeless teacher

Notice some people believe love is simply an emotion that keeps people bonded and committed. Awareness echoes love is more. Uplifting feelings, a deep sense of care, connection and commitment awaken something deeper. One might say everything points to a love beyond boundaries, beyond the known and unknown. Even that which evokes discomfort and resistance is guiding us to surrender to what is greater than self.

As Kahlil Gibran echoes, "when love beckons, we follow him." The brave are willing to travel high and low, to endure and grow from whatever presents. The winding journey is guiding one home.

Something within invites us to trust or have faith in what love represents, in all its disguises, shapes and forms. At different life moments, dreams may be shattered. This can be love in action And even as we fall in and out of love, do we realize love invites growth and pruning. All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

The fearless one knows love is not limited to peace and pleasure. Love gives nothing but itself and takes nothing but itself from itself. Love possesses not and cannot be owned. Love is enough in and of itself. Only ego thinks it can direct the course of love. If love finds one worthy, love actually directs one's winding course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. This takes shape in the flowing river, the sun beaming down on the Earth, the wind that blows through the forests, plains and deserts. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own under-standing of love. And to bleed willingly and joyfully. Every moment is another opportunity to love and be loved, to be grateful for another day of loving. Meditate on love’s ecstasy.

To exist and move through life with a grateful heart is to sleep with a prayer of love for one's beloved and all beings in th heart. So love is everything and nothing, flowing in all directions and all dimensions right now. How and to what extent we are open to it, begins and ends within our unique being. This is the path of love, to love, back to love, from hence we came and never actually left.

 

Make yourself vulnerable & Live fully

Notice we are often conditioned to believe that getting up close and personal, making ourselves vulnerable, can evoke significant discomfort and suffering. The surprising thing is, its precisely doing what evokes discomfort that builds strength and resilience. What we seek is right here within. Its closer than we think. The truth is self-evident. We must simply be willing to step outside our comfort zone to remember what enables us to feel most alive. Marcel Proust reminds us, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes." 

Navigate through what arises

Notice anger and discontent arise. Yet, conditioning teaches us to fear expressing truth, to resist sharing feelings, and to believe expressing anything other than calmness or happiness is bad or wrong. Even within yoga or spiritual circles, emotions that don’t echo only peace, love, gratitude, and joy are often judged as out of place.

Truth is, dishonesty about the ups and downs of life is insincerity. To say one thing directly and yet, express different feelings behind the scenes, suggests what we think, say and feel are incongruent.

Inner well-being comes from the connection and harmony between our inner life and the outer world. As we live from soul, our thoughts, feelings and action naturally align. When something does not feel right, imbalance plays out in our lives to guide us in new directions.

Assuming we must always be happy may misinterpret the sutras, yamas, and niyamas. After all, true transformation involves bringing discomfort to the surface, being honest with ourselves as part of accepting and integrating everything. This is the path to embody wholeness. Each instance we are not open with others, tells us we are not open and honest with ourselves in ways we do not yet recognize. This process of opening the heart to cracks is necessary to guide one into the vibration of true peace and contentment.

Why is it that we tend to overlook mental-emotional afflictions? How is it helpful to run from ourselves? We can only do so for so long. Our emotions or instincts arise as our buttons are being pushed, causing a negative reaction instead of a positive action. It brings us face-to-face with another side of duality before going beyond.

Triggers invite us to face our shadows, to let go of harmful behavioral patterns. Through the lens of svadhyaya, or self-study, we can see shortcomings otherwise invisible to us. The journey inward is a way to dismantle why we react to certain people and ideas, and it helps us explore new directions.

Yoga is about raising awareness. As we grow more aware of our humanity, we naturally feel more comfortable expressing it. Maybe we get angry, frustrated, or upset sometimes because we practice something that stretches us to new levels of awareness and acceptance of who we are. What enters our scope of experience is always the perfect tool to navigate what arises to guide soul growth. We are like invisible air that takes shape through wind, moving clouds and swaying trees and then, blows away.

The Secret to True Nature

Notice that as we let go of outdated beliefs and reveal our true colours, our entourage shifts and changes until we are in complete resonance with multidimensional nature. Every mind makes its choices between embracing truths or turning away. We guide self on the Path. Change is always both good and bad, because change, even when it is refreshing, always entails perceived loss. Nothing new appears unless something old ceases. There exists despair and equanimity. Impermanence is both. Its synchronicity that the lotus grows out of the mud and the phoenix arises from the ashes.

Much of my writing refers to death, absence, and disappearing from one world, body or state into another. Focusing only on immortality resists the wisdom offered by ideas of death and prevents one from feeling truly alive. As consciousness expands, one shifts from belief that death is an end to awareness of energy in motion, transforming, transmuting, changing form, state and ultimately, parallel realities.

If you want to understand True Nature, simply observe cause and effect over time. When the time is ripe, True Nature reveals itself. Every personal and emotional teaching of impermanence that life is kind enough to offer, deepens my capacity to love and expands innersight into the over-soul and its projections. We are all on a journey to realise that everything is based on love, connection, abundance, and freedom. No matter the experience, we can choose to perceive it through these high vibrating frequencies, and therefore embody more of our divinity in our current reality.

Shift to reclaim Inner Power

Notice true power arises from within and waits on us to unleash it. We access inner power through self-awareness, conscious intention, speaking our truth, pure desire to uplift others and the self. Tapping into our inner power requires making purposeful choices to direct our thoughts, emotions, behaviors and access higher vibrations. Pursuing external power weakens our inner power since it requires external approval or validation. Many of us do this. This is why we must shift focus to “reclaim inner power.”

Reclaiming inner power is about being present, withdrawing consciousness (attention) from what does not resonate with our frequency and acting to continue raising consciousness. This is continuously choosing mindsets, behaviors, and emotions that guide us to walk in love and trust versus fear and doubt. Its like, choosing to give versus take, to surrender rather than to worry. Choose to ground in higher vibrations that emit signals of peace and contentment. This guides one towards the highest version of self. It dawns we each walk in full power when we own and use our gifts in different situations to benefit our collective humanity.

Reclaiming our power also implies not suppressing feelings. Its about creating boundaries to build a sense of safety and see from another's point of view. When we give ourselves space and solitude, soul flourishes.

If you feel triggered, insecure, or mistreated/ betrayed, whether it's really another person treats you that way or it doesn't matter: you feel betrayed and you can no longer receive love or connect; The innate desire to be seen, heard, valued cannot be felt if you hide behind a shield. As you discover innate security, it dawns negative feelings are only triggered and they guide us to deeper truth.

Feeling complete in yourself implies you are not dependent on another and already tune into and live your own truth. You no longer need external validation or acceptance yourself as you are. Relationships truly enrich us from the moment we recognize we are the ultimate source of all we need. This is the path to codependence no more. All experience enriches our journey of awareness.