『#219 Healing Through Grief: How Yoga, Practice, and Community Carry Us Forward When Everything Falls Apart』のカバーアート

#219 Healing Through Grief: How Yoga, Practice, and Community Carry Us Forward When Everything Falls Apart

#219 Healing Through Grief: How Yoga, Practice, and Community Carry Us Forward When Everything Falls Apart

無料で聴く

ポッドキャストの詳細を見る

このコンテンツについて

 This year has been rough in ways I could not have imagined. The overarching theme has been one of grief, loss, and sorrow, a kind of ache that spread through every part of my life. The tragic death of my teacher did not remain a single event. It rippled outward until it touched everything. Other losses arrived in the wake of his passing. Some were directly connected to the vacuum of his absence. Others had nothing to do with him at all, yet they braided themselves into the same thread of heartbreak. In this same season, the illusion of friendship shattered before my eyes. People I once cared for looked at me without softness and told me they had never considered me a friend. They used words I would rather forget, and strangers echoed similar judgments. The very ground beneath my feet shifted. The principles and relationships I had held dear suddenly felt unstable and uncertain, as though the internal architecture of my world had been shaken loose. During this tumultuous year, a few things remained solid. My practice never wavered. Each morning I returned to my mat, not to achieve anything and not to perform anything. My practice is and has always been a spiritual act. It is the way I connect with God. It is the place where my ego dissolves and humility rises in its place. It is the steady thread that holds me when everything else feels broken. My effort becomes a quiet offering. My breath becomes a prayer. This is the ground that holds me upright when the world feels unsteady. Joy remained too. Even in sadness, meaning continued to appear. Sometimes it came as a small flicker in an ordinary moment. Sometimes it felt like a pulse of grace moving through the day. I have been criticized for smiling. I have been called fake for speaking about the luminosity that comes from spiritual connection. Still, I cannot hide that joy. It rises from a place beyond circumstance, beyond judgment, beyond the opinions that others hold. It does not erase the grief. It simply reminds me that sorrow and devotion can live side by side. Somewhere in the haze of disappointment, moments of clarity filtered in. I used to believe we could all find common ground and get along. I am not sure I believe that anymore. It feels like some people will dislike you simply because you are happy. Your joy unsettles something in them. Your smile irritates what remains unexamined in their own heart. No amount of calm conversation or compassionate outreach can shift their perspective once they have decided that your presence is somehow a problem. When someone needs you to dim your light so they can feel comfortable in their own shadow, there is nothing you can offer that will satisfy them. What you can do is release the need to win them over. Their reaction belongs to them. Your peace and your happiness belong to you. Instead of trying to bring out the goodness in people who are committed to hating you, it may be wiser to live and let live. When people show you who they are, we learn to believe them. Contrast can help us become clear about who we are and who we are not, while comparison only breeds jealousy or unworthiness. There are people who use words like knives, whose intention in speaking is to cut and tear down, perhaps in an effort to feel a momentary rush of power. Real power is not about harming others. Real power is about lifting others up. Hate and judgment are easy. The human mind lapses into divisive thinking, fueled by negativity bias and amplified by algorithms that reward outrage. Hate justifies anger, and the cycle continues. In some ways, hate is an act of cowardice. We turn someone we fear into an "other" so we do not have to sit with the discomfort they awaken in us. Separation and division may appear powerful, but sowing seeds of destruction for personal gain is a form of weakness. Compassion and kindness are often the more difficult choice. In the face of pain, forgiveness is an act of courage and strength. Hate has never healed anything, including injustice and harm. If justice becomes only an eye for an eye, we are trapped in an endless struggle to extract the next punishment. We are instead offered the possibility of ending the cycle by choosing togetherness and committing to build on the foundation of love. Each brick in the house of the heart is formed by our thoughts, actions, and behaviors, not only toward ourselves but toward others. When someone has decided to hate you, there is, unfortunately, nothing you can do to change their mind. Once you become the villain in someone's story, everything you do will be interpreted through that lens, regardless of the truth. We cannot change anyone's mind for them. Each of us is responsible for our own thoughts, beliefs, speech, and actions. The only thing we can truly tend is the garden of our own heart. The hardest thing to do is to love someone who hates us. At the very least, we can try not to hate them in return. That alone may be enough to break the cycle. They may ...
まだレビューはありません