So much has been happening in my local Jayne-o-sphere at the moment: workshops, teacher training, studio classes, social events, cleanses, ecstatic dancing and deep relaxation...all in just the past two weeks! It's easy to see how and why we get knocked off center with such full schedules. What this has prompted me to do is to bring a sharper focus into how I want to live every day and in particular how to stay aligned with my highest sense of self. This week, our focus has been on Intentional Living, an awareness of how we are lining up with how we wish to be in our lives.
When I was growing up, every once in awhile I would get into a fight with my older brother. We're just 17 months apart and sometimes we would find ourselves in a full-on wrestling match. We would be quibbling over something and it would get physical, with neither of us wanting to relent. We just kept holding on until either fatigue or, more usually, a parent would intervene. At no point did it occur to me that I could let go, end the confrontation and move on. Nope...I needed to hold on to prove whatever juvenile point that I was trying to make.
And sometimes our thoughts are just like that. They pop up with an accompanying emotion and we just keep holding on, tumbling ourselves deeper and deeper into the story of that one particular thought. It doesn't occur to us that we actually have a choice in the very next moment to act differently to our initial reaction. This is where our practice begins to embed itself into our everyday lives. We learn to notice the simplest of things-How does the breath feel as it passes in and out of the nostrils? What is the sensation I'm creating when I pull my knee closer into my chest? Can I notice that I'm distracted and bring myself back into the present moment and regain focus?
From these seemingly small and simple moments of mindfulness, we begin to discover that if we really pay attention, we begin to notice a gap, that opening of space where we realize we have an opportunity to actually make a choice onto which vibrational path we wish to tread. In a recent Chakra Alignment workshop with intuitive-medium, Geoffrey Jowett, the concept of each of the seven chakras possessing two archetypes was a new idea for me. I love studying the chakras and have done so for many years, but I never thought about them in this way. Each one has a lower and a higher vibration and as we explore them, we begin to see the direction in which we are heading. In the past I've talked about being my "evolved vs unevolved self" and the high/low vibration resonated with me.
I've been working many years to unmask my deepest intentions of how I wish to be in this lifetime. They include things like compassion, service, kindness, meaningful relationships and uncovering my purpose. This constant exploration has created a particular feeling deep within me and when I make choices that aren't aligning with these intentions I can feel it in my body...and I don't like it. It's as though I've been creating my own tuning fork and when I find dissonance, I get an inner warning that I'm falling off track. It's a beautiful teacher as it absolutely brings me back into how I wish to be living in that moment. It uncovers the choice that I can make in either moving toward my higher vibrating evolved self, or sliding into past behavior of that lower vibrating unevolved self.
Long gone are the days when I physically wrestle my brother, but I continue to emotionally wrestle with other things. Thankfully, I've given myself the space in which to grow and explore my own self through yoga and meditation. I'm still learning and noticing the many times I'm holding on, getting pulled into a way of being what feels like an ill-fitting outfit. Yet, I recognize it now as my life lessons presenting themselves to me and that I can choose to learn from or ignore what sits in front of me.
As Sharon Salzberg so eloquently stated, "Which thoughts and emotions do you wish to nurture?". Likening our thoughts to clouds passing through a vibrant blue sky, which ones do you let pass and which ones do you create a story around? Are you nurturing the thoughts that take you into better alignment with how you wish to be in the world? I know that we are all doing the best that we can for where we are in this moment, and in this very moment, in this very breath, I choose to take my vibrations higher!
Live intentionally...you have the power to make that choice.
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