Sometimes it takes the proverbial “last straw” to break the cacophony of life’s stresses that disrupt the aria of the spirit and allow us to find our inner guru. When life’s challenges, tests and trials start to build up, they rarely happen in isolated incidents. Relationship problems, family crisis and job concerns build and mount until it seems that life cannot possibly expect us to handle one more thing. Stretched away from our center, the ability to maintain perspective becomes challenged and it easily turns our attention outward, from a place of negative thoughts and emotions. We hope for a shift, a turning point, for life to extend some compassion to our burden. Then it happens, the parking ticket, the death of the family pet, the newly painted park bench that, still wet ruins our clothes, or in my case yesterday morning, waking to find the car has been stolen.
Being pushed just over the brink of our apparent threshold we are given an opportunity to realize that the compassion which we long for does not come from the circumstances of our day to day, transmuting to our spirit, but rather from our spirit comes the compassion and love which we long for and have been moved away from. Regaining this connection with ourselves immediately changes how our circumstances affect us and in doing so, begins to shift the pendulum swing in the other direction.
Yesterday was one of the best days I have had in quite some time. Not in spite of my car being stolen, but in large part, because my car was stolen. This was the broken straw that allowed me to move through the absurdity of circumstances that have beset me and regain communion with my inner guru. As is it written in the Bhagavad Gita, “There is nothing lost or wasted in this life.” For a moment I hung suspended as I processed the feeling of disbelief, then a wave of perspective washed over me, bringing the decision to embrace life’s unpredictability and challenge with love and compassion.
By turning our attention to the heart and regaining communion with the voice that resides within, we bring a shift so dramatic and empowering that despite the car, despite the relationship crisis and family turmoil, we can move into our light, feeling centered and grounded.
Those who practice yoga learn when their attention shifts away from a pose, dissecting minds from bodies and spirits they gently call attention back to the present with breath and mantra. So to, in our lives, we can use these techniques to regain composure when the forces of the external world begin to force themselves into our consciousness, draining our energy, challenging our sense of self.
By moving our attention in this direction we cannot expect to instantaneously change the circumstances that we must confront. We all must constantly face what it is that life brings to our doorstep. But we can change the way in which these circumstances impact our spirit. In the words of Gandhi, “Each one of us has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances”. We are each capable of turning the unforeseen and sometimes seemingly catastrophic events from obstacles that impede our intended path, to challenges which call us to respond to the ever changing winds of our world with flexibility and suppleness. In fact these obstacles serve as opportunities to call forth the potential that resides within each and all.
Our minds routinely project our lives out in front of us from any given place in time. But this logical cognitive process flies in the face of one of only two constants that I am able to perceive in this world, change and love. Oftentimes, this way of thinking, which allows us to navigate with apparent effect through the material world, creates an imperceptible pressure upon our spiritual being, hindering our ability to be open to the opportunities that even the most difficult hardships may offer. Yoga practice teaches us to be in the present moment, our worlds ever changing around us. Each and every moment brings with it potential and possibility. If we are married to the projections of our minds, we become rigid in the face of life’s constantly changing nuances and may easily come to feel ourselves “off track”. These times can be the most difficult to let go of our disappointment and frustration and hear the guiding voice coming from within, and likewise, these are the times when we most need to hear and hold the whispering voice of our inner guru.
Life is not about perfection. It is about striving continually to improve. Mistakes, setbacks, even the largest of obstacles are an integral component on this path. Indeed, these challenges often prove to be crucial ingredients in the process. They serve to disrupt our comfort zone. Rarely, if ever do change, adaptation and growth result from being comfortable.
My belief is that we are each faced in life with exactly what we need for our own growth. We are each called to face the circumstances that only we as individuals are capable of handling. By bringing our attention to our heart-space and opening to the voice from within we can learn to bring our higher selves into light and begin to see through the darkness.
