Navaratri

This week is Navaratri. The 9 nights in India we honor Lakshmi, Sarswati, Kali and Durga. We honor and celebrate the feminine. Regardless of how we identify with gender. We honor that deep, inner, super power we all already are that transforms.

Can you imagine transforming and letting go? Letting go of __________. Letting go is easy.

Nope.

Nothing about letting go is easy. Letting go requires a willingness to transform. A willingness to toss into the fire that which no longer serves us and/or is no longer relevant. Being that present is a great challenge.

So many fires are burning. Both internal and external. Both micro and macro. The inner struggle. The external struggle. For me, letting go go requires willingness. Space. Regular practice. A wider aperture. A clear understanding of transformation. And, a willingness to transform.

Transformation - a buzz word as of late - is not transforming into something we aren’t yet, but removing that which doesn’t belong. Transformation is a return to. A recognition of our most pure. Our most still. Our most whole. We can willingly toss a jewel into the fire, and what is burned away is the gunk, and what is left is what is most pure. The sparkling, clear, rawest aspect of the whole.

We typically hold onto thoughts/feelings/patterns that drive our emotions in a particular way. And these accumulate and repeat over time. In a seemingly repetitive way. It’s not on purpose. We don’t hold onto these particular patterns to purposely try to make ourselves fearful, anxious, sad, worried. Yet. Often that’s what happens.

Our state of being is affected by our thoughts. Our feelings fueled and driven by these patterns. Almost so much that it feels wrong to try to change them. We are left wondering what we’d think/feel/be without them.

We continue repeating. A loop-a way of being that is less present.

The yoga practices pour in to ask us to presence ourselves. Not to continually repeat patterns. Not to fuel an already burning fire. Rather, to look at how we might be feeding our current state with more of the same. Like feeding a wildfire with dead timber-which we know all too well about here in CA.

If we are willing to pause. Look. See. Listen. Feel. Really look. Then, we can notice what patterns are present. And, possibly intervene in the midst of an old record playing on repeat. Make a choice not to place more timber on a burning fire, so it can cool. And so we can see more clearly. This is possibly what it means to be present.

Underlying calm and ease. That’s what’s present when we let go. Really let go. Not more fuel for the fire we are already burning.

Are you willing to pause, look. Listen with me?

I love you. And, I support you. And I‘ll meet you on the mat, in the breath, in the exhale,
Love,
Kelly