You Own the Freedom to Begin Again.
{Photo via http://vi.sualize.us}
We have all been there.
A catastrophe hits. A job loss, a fire, a flood, a marriage crumbling — any ending that rocks our world to the very core, jarring and threatening what we perceive as complete, and utter depletion of all we have carved, built and worked very hard for through the years.
You vacillate from extreme pain to numbness, from shock to panic, from paralyzing distress to apathy. There’s just no way you can get through another blow.
The thing is, you already have. You have got up from every seemingly debilitating fall over and over again. The big secret is that there is none.
The helmet we wear for this whitewater rafting daily life expedition works fine most of the time, and at other times, things will be tricky.
There will be twists and turns, jolts and sudden stops, curveballs and darting obstructions from out of nowhere, and that’s just making our way through morning rush hour traffic.
Life is rough — as they say, no one gets out of it alive — but you forget that with the bitter comes the sweet, with downs the glorious ups, with sorrow the profound moments of joy, and that no-secret secret? It’s letting everything in as beautifully as we let it all out.
It’s when we become so attached to things outside of ourselves (allowing the externals to define us) that we feel the most pain.
Sure it’s alright to celebrate milestones, triumphs and victories, but these are as transient as sadness, shame and rejection, and even that all-consuming fear that we conjure up so expertly.
What happens to you and what you do are one and the same process. Just as breathing in and out, you let it come back on its own and then back out again. In doing this, you generate a great deal of energy without straining or forcing anything.
You accept and allow life to unfold as you too evolve and come to your own. Nothing is static; everything changes just as everything remains the same.
We have got quite adept at using fear as a cautionary filter to shield us from gut-wrenching disappointments, when there really is a choice over fear, real or unreal: love, and its endless avenues for moving on.
When you feel stuck and don’t know where to begin again, discover your breath anew.
Pull up those sleeves (if it’s hot) or that hood up and over (if it’s cold). Saunter into the vastness of New, inside (where all emotions are welcome) or outside (where the light of a fresh day ushers in hope). Let every step and breath be a release.
Take in (the) soft wintry or warm soothing air and imagine all your fears fade with every exhale. Soften, stretch and allow that beautiful heart its glorious chance to open wide.
Let go, surrender, free your mind, and know that life is just a practice, just as one’s profession, falling in love, raising a family, speaking in public, doing Yoga and all the many things we hold on to like mad for fear of failure (are). Practice letting go of judgment.
You’re on your own path and you’re right where you need to be and the only ones (truly) expecting us to be perfect are ourselves.
Because through so many byways and highways of this beautiful journeying exquisitely called life I have learned that —
Every mistake I make allows me to see how much more there is to learn. The more wrong turns I take, the less scared I am of taking the same ones over again.
The more lessons I go through, the less I regret adding to this wealth I call experience and the more experience I ultimately enjoy surviving, the less time I realize I have in this lifetime to learn it all.
Be kind to the traveler you are.
It brings back all the fun in practicing anything your splendid heart desires, and should you ever lose sight of it, remember, we are just taking every moment one breath and step at a time.
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10 tips for how to keep an open heart from breaking every day.
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{One step…}
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