There’s profound medicine in practices that don’t try to sell us a perfect version of ourselves.
The Beauty and Comedy of Transformation
Embodiment
If we’re lucky enough to have a safe and nurturing environment as a kid like I did (thanks mom and dad, you were phenomenal), we get this honeymoon period in our tender years when self-trust comes naturally. Then as teachers and other lifestyle-influencers, however well meaning, get their hands on us and begin to mold us and erect guard rails around us? Or begin pigeon-holing our natural curiosity into the metaphysical realm into a rigid religious structure? Self-trust erodes. Over time, we look more and more outside ourselves – and certainly outside our own bodies – for approval, for validation that we’re worthy of love, or for exterior evidence that we have a place that matters in this world.
Patient Remembering
Solitude is one thing. Loneliness is quite another. I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, contemplative practices that happen in community can make it easier to remember all kinds of things. Such as how the inquiry into truth (yoga) can seem to take infinite patience, how everyone else is also finding their way, and why good humor can save your life while it's busy coming true.
Anchoring to Essence: Ditching Complexity
Cilantro, Wile E Coyote, and Yoga
Our commitment to, and sense of urgency about, knowing nothing but the truth seems to amplify with time. Once we have more than a few decades of grownup life under our belt, our tolerance for fanciful thinking or concepts that feel contrived putter out. My recent personal experience is that thirst for the unvarnished truth gets magnified when faced with unexpected loss and its onerous sidekick, grief. When the stakes feel high and our hearts are tender, our appetite for extravagant leaps of faith raw peters out
