There’s a physical cue in the yoga practice, “root down to rise up”, and if you practice yoga, you’ve probably heard it. Whatever is touching the mat, whether it’s your feet, your forearms, your hands or your head, that is your foundation. You are asked to find the strength at your root, and rise up out of it.
It’s also an emotional and energetic cue. How can I rise up if the ground beneath me is shifting, and I can’t find my footing? Life offers up opportunities to work on this all the time! Personally, we might be going through crisis, or dealing with circumstances that seem incomprehensible, and we might also be dealing with that globally, as a culture.
There’s also the beautiful metaphor of the lotus flower, which grows in mud and muck, but rises up out of it to become this gorgeous, blossoming flower. Whether we’re dealing with personal muck, or global muck, that is the question. How am I going to find my ground and rise up out of this? How am I going to offer something of myself that will be of use? Yoga practice tells us to go inside. It asks us not to allow our shine to dim based on external events, but rather to find the shine within, and then spread it. No one defines what you can or cannot do but you. People may try to shut you down or scare you into silence, or force you to accept ideas that are reprehensible to you, but you do not have to allow that, and you do not have to be quiet.
When you don’t know what to do, be the light. Sending you all a ton of love. So grateful for your shine,
Beautiful. La flor de loto en el lodo.