Certainty. We are freaks about being certain. Humans go to such great lengths to keep things the same, even when the same old things are making us miserable. I wonder if the resistance to meditation is that in stillness, all of that possibility smells like change and change means uncertainty.
So we get up and get busy again. We lace up the shoes and get back on the treadmill where we don’t have to think about change, and choice, and possibility. There is comfort in the doing. Peace inside of the action. Certainty.
I think we all know that we hold ourselves back, that we stay stuck, and settle in areas of our lives. But there is another paradox here. Our stillness also can teach us where we need to stay, and find contentment (Santosha). We can spin out as we try to “figure it out”, and so again, we get our busy on and get back to the certainty of the race.
Today, after your meditation, take out your journal and consider these questions:
1. What possibilities are beckoning you? Just write everything without censoring. This will look like a dream board. A someday list. A possibility collage.
2. Is one of these possibilities pulling more than the others? Is it enticing, exciting, comforting, scary, powerful? Write about one possibility, and the feelings that come up around it.
3. What reservations do you have about this possibility? What feels safe about where you are, and what feels challenging as you look in the direction of change? Now the writing will get more specific. Be honest and write about what is holding you back.
4. Now, the balance. Place this possibility on the table in front of you. And hold it in the space of Santosha, or contentment. Ask…am I running after this as yet another thing out there that will make me happy? Or is this a true pull toward my destiny?
Your heart knows the answer. You might take a few more minutes in meditation to sit with the answers (or questions).
And now the practice of yoga begins.
Namaste.
*Photo by Szilard Toth on Unsplash
