Whatever you do, don’t shut down. Remember when you were young? You shone like the sun. Then, the traumas of life happened, and we built walls. Have you considered that your former best coping mechanism may now be your own worst enemy?
There is, perhaps, no loneliness lonelier than feeling alone in the company of others. How does that even happen, anyways? By shutting down, tuning out and closing off. By thwarting genuine connection with others through secrecy, privacy and a lack of trust.
In a book I’m reading for my “Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist” certification, David Frawley says that the foundation of yogic practice is based on “right association”. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. How did you pick your friends and loved ones and c0-workers and other people you choose to spend time with? What’s the connection?
Frequently, people rally over a joint interest. Or maybe just over a joint. What is it that keeps you and your friends kicking it? Can you open your heart to that person, and share on a soul level? Or do you just talk about the weather and other people and bullshit?
Many of us learned through childhood that sharing our feelings is bad. Sometimes so much so that we think even having feelings in the first place is bad. Stiff upper lip. Crying is for babies. Be a big girl.
But where do feelings go when not felt? Sometimes they sink to the bottom of a whiskey bottle. Other times they’re frittered away in journals for nobody. Or maybe all your hidden hearts and flowers get turned inside out and turn to anger.
I read once that impatience is the surface of anger. Looking back now, I can see how true that is. I used to be SO impatient. And I could totally cop to it. It was obvious to anyone who ever waited in line for a taco with me. But if you asked me if I was angry… NO! Of COURSE not!
But I was angry. Wicked angry. At the world. And most all of the people in it. In ways I wasn’t even aware of. I’d mentally created the great divide. Us and them.
I always felt like I was weird, and that people couldn’t understand or relate to me. Through the practice of life and yoga, though, I’ve come to realize that’s not the case. It’s not me who’s weird – it’s all of us. And why would we want it any other way?
We are all a little weird and life is a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love. – Dr. Seuss
Life is beautiful. So are the people in it. Your birthright is love and happiness. Open your heart to breaking. A million times. At the end of love is only more love. Remain open to receive your bounty.
OPERATION YOGA 