If I'm honest, what I "dislike" the most about my wife is that by loving me well she mirrors me (I hope you get I'm being playful). Lisa reflects back to me both my lightness (yay!) and my darkness (boo!). That said, isn't it ironic that BOTH make me uncomfortable? Still, it's definitely way easier to accept compliments than it is to own the ways I can do better; like being less selfish, not always over-packing our weekends, and not running late.
Author and priest Cynthia Bourgeault calls Jesus' teaching and way of life "the path of conscious love", which captures for me what Lisa models and I endeavor to practice. "Conscious love" is not only choosing to mindfully care well for others, but also deciding to see others as our teachers in our journey of transformation. Our relationships are opportunities to develop greater awareness of our selves and others, learn the ins and outs of care and compassion, and become more fully alive.
The more we consciously love another being, the more relationally intimate we become, and in this vulnerable space, both our beauty and blemishes are mirrored to us. Conscious love calls forth who we truly are by both revealing our deep soul beauty, so it can shine more brightly, and our inner darkness, so that the healing power of Light may help us transform it!
Conscious love is awakening to the Truth about our selves and others. It's not only mindfully choosing words and actions that bring the greatest good, but also letting the way others mirror us transform us. Inspired by Lisa, today I'm going to practice conscious love. Anyone want to join me?
#love #light #life #consciouslove #transformation #mirror #mirroring #growth #beauty #blemishes #lightness #darkness #mindful #mindfulness #awake #awakening #Jesus #Christ #upwardspiral #blissarmy #blissology #whitelotus_yoga_poulsbo #kitsaphotyoga
What's one of your favorite words? One I especially adore, and have a tat of, is "shalom". While this Hebrew word is typically translated "peace", it also means wholeness, unity, and harmony. It's basically shorthand for "everything as it should be". Powerful stuff. Along those lines, I recall in seminary talking about the collective shalom brought by people who are a kind, nonreactive, and un-anxious presence. In a world that encourages overreactions, fosters fears, amplifies anxieties, and promotes divisions, I remember thinking this way of being is both what we need, and who I want to be.
In my Christian tradition we have a practice called "Passing the Peace", wherein people shake hands, or hug, while saying "peace be with you". I share this because it highlights how shalom is not only a shared and communal energy, but, like wine, peace is an acquired taste we learn and become bit-by-bit. Over time we become passers of peace by making small, doable decisions to be kind, nonreactive, and un-anxious. What is more, as we choose to "hit" an aggravating person with curious instead of biting words, to let a spider live instead of killing it, to believe the best about a person who's dumb driving is slowing us down, and so on, we discover peace is a beautiful force that naturally flows through and from us into others.
I believe at all levels of relationships, kind, nonreactive, and un-anxious presences are the healing medicine that will soothe our souls and unite our spirits. So, today I invite us to practice passing peace by making easy and natural, yet unusual for us, choices be, feel, and spread shalom.
#love #light #life #peace #shalom #passthepeace #passingthepeace #wholeness #unity #harmony #nonreactive #unanxious #fear #anxiety #division #overreaction #kind #kindness #curiosity #nonviolence #spirit #community #relationship #yoga #upwardspiral #healing #blissarmy #blissology #kitsaphotyoga #whitelotus_yoga_poulsbo
I've been struggling a bit and feeling disjointed lately. While I'm convinced each of us is essentially good, internally I keep coming face-to-face with my darkness. For instance, I'll find myself super judgmental toward people "I feel" are bringing more fear, division, greed, and such into the world via their actions and beliefs. Relatedly, "unkind", to put it mildly, thoughts will occasionally pop up in my head.
As a well-known therapist/author says: We're ALL murders and adulterers, in that there's unjustified anger and illicit lust within each of us. Along those lines, I think the source of my disjointedness is I've been ignoring and/or shaming my inner darkness. The KEY is to face, accept, and name the contradiction we ourselves are. Then, in tandem with people close to us and Something Bigger Than and Beyond Ourselves (God, Spirit, Love, etc.), Love every nook and cranny of our being.
Our darkness doesn't define us, we're born with Spirit-sent Light & Love at our centers. YET, our darkness WILL own us, as it's been doing to me, if we shame or ignore it. Love, you see, Loves in wholes, as in EVERY BIT OF US ... LIGHTNESS & DARKNESS. The beautiful thing is, when we let Love in everywhere, we open ourselves up to the healing forces of mercy and forgiveness. What's more, by doing so Love will, over time, transform our darkness, and we'll become conduits for mercy and forgiveness for others, because the goodness we open ourselves up to will fill and flow through us.
How are you? Thanks for reading my share and I hope you have an AMAZING day because YOU are FANTASTIC!
#love #light #life #lightness #darkness #transformation #kindness #wholeness #mercy #forgiveness #goodness #spirit #divine #yoga #magicman #upwardspiral #blissarmy #blissology #kitsaphotyoga #whitelotus_yoga_poulsbo
