Where the Trouble Starts

Ayurveda describes life as a flow of energy and information through form.

When the flow stops, life stops. This flow is characterized by change. Life is constantly transforming from one form into another, breaking down from complex into simpler substances and growing from basic elements into more intricate expressions.

To be alive is to be growing, changing, and dying.

Creation, sustenance, and transformation/destruction are happening simultaneously, everywhere, all the time. In yogic terms, life is the dance of Shiva and Shakti, Consciousness (information) and Energy/Matter (Energy is matter; check with Einstein: E=mc2).

In Ayurveda, the principle of transformation within the bodies of all living things, including Earth herself, is known as agni. Agni is fire, light, and heat. It is the capacity to break down and release energy, and it is the energy itself in the form of radiance. Agni is cause of photosynthesis in plants and metabolism in animals and humans.

In our body, agni governs the processes of digestion. A major part of digestion is breaking down inputs into building blocks that can be used by the cells to generate new tissues. Agni works intimately with our life force energy, prana, to separate nutrients from toxins and wastes, assimilate and absorb nutrients into tissues, and expel/eliminate waste. Agni performs this same function at the mental and emotional levels. When agni is healthy, we are able to take in and digest information, think and perceive clearly, and make decisions. We feel light, energetic, and hungry to experience life in a good way.

You can see how agni is essential to life and to health. In fact, disease cannot develop on any level, physical or mental, without an imbalance, disturbance, or dysfunction in agni.

When digestion, metabolism, and elimination are working perfectly we are all systems go. Our immune system is resilient and fully functional, we are in symbiosis with our environment, we are producing healthy body tissues, and we are able to eliminate wastes and toxins from our system. Weakness develops when some aspect of this flow is disrupted.

This means that our digestive processes are THE key to health. Period.

There is not a single disease which does not include some type of disturbance to digestion or metabolism. Disease begins as a subtle imbalance, develops into niggling concerns, and if left unaddressed, eventually progresses until it alters body tissues and real symptoms start to manifest.

Western medicine rarely recognizes the connection between a change in our digestive capacity and the development of a problem until we are in the latest stages of disease. By contrast, Ayurveda is about disease prevention. It teaches us about the workings of our bodies and minds in detail and teaches us how to observe, assess, and correct, and optimize as necessary.

If you are only going to learn one thing from Ayurveda, learn how to assess and tend to your agni.

Some of the core work we do together with Ayurvedic Health Counseling is centered on this.

Want to learn more? Keep reading! And schedule an Ayurvedic Health Consultation with me.

Soul Fire

Consider that you are a genius,

that you were born with a precious spark of perception, motivation, expression unlike any other.

Through the natural course of life, this spark was overcast by deep shadows of collectively held beliefs, coated by opaque lacquer of unspoken assumptions, muffled and buried under insulating layers of what you should do and how you should be. The most well-intentioned and trusted people in your life piled it on in the name of protecting you and preparing you to deal with life. Because that is what we were taught to do.

Being the good human that you are, you soldiered on. You’ve done the best you could to fulfill your duty.

Somehow that spark has stayed alive, and for years it was a constant source of slight irritation for you, because it rarely seemed to help you do what you “had” to do or what you “should” do, but instead has always whispered alluringly for you to explore experiences and do things that seem utterly irrational, unproductive, inefficient, and otherwise against your obligations as a “responsible adult.” And you’ve kept it at bay by answering its requests to explore and play with, “Later….later,” all the while dedicating your vitality to the To-Do list.

Yet the deeper desire in you to live true and live fully expands beyond what is expected of you. The seed of consciousness which is the evolutionary imperative within you will not stop calling you toward yourself, toward your soul.

Gradually through the tempering of life’s projects—beginnings and endings, dreams and failures—you have begun to recognize that achievement of the standards you’ve learned and upheld doesn’t bring zest for life. This grind to show up the way you are supposed to actually drains your energy, and it doesn’t even bring a guarantee of security!

And the persistence of that tiny voice, that impulse to keep searching, has prompted you to ever-so-slightly turn towards the spark, to listen with tentative curiosity. Maybe you started running. Maybe you took a yoga class, started journaling, or spent a day planting trees.

Whatever you did to crack the door to this tiny spark, the moment it received even a breath of air, it sprung to life and started to dance inside you.

Your courage grows.

You start to meditate regularly. You begin to explore dietary changes. You take a day off from work to be with your kids—or with yourself. You decide not to buy the thing that you know has such a horrible environmental impact. You trade your $5/day latte for a superfood meal. And you see what happens.

You’ve begun to understand that the part of you that seemed so unruly, so difficult to discipline and impossible to channel - this part of you feeds directly from the vibrant fountain of Life itself. This is your connection to vigor, inspiration, and happiness. It is the genius of your essence, outside all learned notions and conditioned responses around how you should be.

And this spark within you, this atom of Nature, is you as a part of the whole of life. It carries the intelligence of the whole, and it carries the desire for healing of the whole, and it carries the strength to really live into your deepest questions, to courageously pursue your deepest wishes, and to face your deepest fears with compassion. It stands for the fulfillment of your divine (beyond human) potential.

It continuously serves your highest growth.

Now that you’ve glimpsed your Self, you are beginning to admit the truth: your REAL job is to tend this fire within you, to dis-cover this genius, to build a hearth within your body and your life where it can burn brightly and bring warmth to the world.

It’s not easy - because most of the world is asleep, trained to pay for electricity instead of connecting to the sustainable power source within. When the world sees a real fire burning, it panics and comes running, yelling, “Put it out!”

That’s why you need to build a moat of calm resilience around your soul-fire. To protect yourself and contain your vibrancy so that you can channel it for the benefit of all.

The world will not validate your efforts. You will have to use what you’ve learned to penetrate illusions, feel into your own heart, and find your way into the unknown, again and again.

Good thing you’re a genius.

You’ll figure it out.

Ways to Fly

I received a wonderful bodywork session today and I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes from the spiritual wild man Ram Das:

We’re all just walking each other home.

Each time I receive therapeutic facilitation, I am reminded of how valuable it is and how helpful it can be. The energy of the partnership and allowing ourselves to drop into receiving mode creates a unique opening. There are just some things we cannot do for ourselves.

The dynamic shifts again when we come together in groups. Gurudev would say,

Company is stronger than willpower.

When a group of individuals unites under a shared focus, an energy field is generated that is greater than the sum of its parts. This field can lift up and sustain all the members of the group with strength far beyond any one person. Community, known in yoga as sangha, is an essential part of our life support system. Certain things can only be achieved by working in a group.

Finally, we experience ourselves differently when we are alone, and there are some things that we can only experience when we are free from the influence and allure of any other humans. In the moments when it is just us, face to face with the universe, we are granted the opportunity to become intimate with ourselves.

Our capacity to be with and within ourselves is the basis for our capacity to forge relationships in the external world. Ultimately, the way we experience life is all about our relationship with ourselves.

These three modes of being—solo, paired, and in a group—are each and all important.

How are you accessing each of these in support of your highest growth? It’s good to check in periodically and see if any fine-tuning is needed.

I See You

When we meet for practice,

I look into your eyes.

I see

how you are burdened by sadness that slumps heavy

where you pushed it into an ashen pile

in the shadowy corner just beyond the border

of your waking awareness.

Your beautiful eyes, clouded

by thoughts that swirl with internal struggles

and worries fed by all the disharmony and suffering you see

outside.

Fine lines of tension around the eyes hint

at the hours you spent

solving problems, serving others, trying to help, doing your best,

thinking and doing

at the expense of your Being; (we all do this)

at the battle that rages on inside,

taking so much energy.

Because some part of you knows (some part of us knows)

that thinking and doing

at the expense of Being

takes its toll

and weighs on the spirit. Until we forget how to fly.

People don’t notice

if they don’t know how to see.

But I have learned; I see you.

I know who you are.

I see your caring way, your gentle, loving self.

I know your heart’s desire to laugh and play, to let go. To just be.

I know this about you because—and as—

I have discovered it about me.

So we enter the practice,

which is an opportunity

to attend imperfectly

to this moment’s experience.

Just a few

minutes of simple movement and breath.

Within a short while, attending

to the One dwelling inside,

I see the flash of life

lighting up and wakening within your eyes.

As we emerge from our closing OM,

Your eyes open wider, softened.

The Light that is you shining clearer through,

and the silent joy from deep within

begins to well and flow from your Being

into this world where we walk together,

where we are not separate and where we are

fundamentally alone and all-one.

When I look into your eyes

I see that this change happens so readily,

as if the entire Being had been waiting for you simply to take some time to turn inside,

to pause the struggle and practice harmony.

When I look into these eyes,

and see the joy of life sparkling,

I am filled with gratitude and inspiration.

Thank you for coming to practice today.

Thank you for Being you.

You truly are my Self.

Namaste.

P.S. Let’s practice together. I’m offering two classes per week at The YogaTonic (live in-person and streaming) now through February.

Information vs. Awareness

Information does not equal awareness.

Having read or heard or seen something, knowing how to do something, or even going through the motions of what we know how to do does not guarantee awareness. Even experience itself does not guarantee awareness, though all of these things (reading, listening, learning, experiencing, and doing) have the potential to awaken awareness within us.

Awareness has to do with conscious engagement. The more aware we are, the more present we are to what is happening now.

Awareness requires sentience. As we become more aware, we become increasingly conscious of the myriad stirrings aroused within our being in response to this moment.

It is only through awareness that skillful action becomes available. Skillful action is an expression of integration.

yogah karmasu kausalam - Bhagavad Gita 2.50

Yoga is skill-in-action

Without awareness, we are like a blindfolded person equipped with every type of headlamp and spotlight known to man, thrashing about in darkness.

We have gotten very good at generating, gathering, and exchanging information. Let’s get better at becoming more aware.

Are you using the tools, knowledge and practices (i.e. what you do regularly) in your life to help you become more aware? How does life change when you do?