Aligning with Grace

On this day of the Summer Solstice, I say goodbye to the first part of this year, and to a concluding phase of my life... On this day, I close the doors on what has been one ministry and open the windows to breathe in the air of something that is not yet... As I taught my last yoga class of the session this morning, and just before I conclude teaching my last in a place that has been spiritual home to me for over six years, I reflect on how endings, even though they hold the seeds and key to something new, can be so bittersweet. While intellectually I know it is time to move on, and that I made the right choice right now given some health considerations - in my heart feels like an entirely different matter... I've never been great at letting go... It has been a year of unexpected changes for me - so many endings, deaths, and a dire diagnosis here and there - for so many that I know... Surely this year thus far, has not in any way turned out to be what I had envisioned or expected. ...

I continue to journey through the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as themes for my yoga classes, and today, we arrive at Sutra 1.33 . Here is a translation by Nischala Joy Devi that I like very much: "When presented with disquieting thoughts or feelings, cultivate an opposite, elevated attitude. This is Pratipaksha Bhavana." This is both a beautiful and challenging practice - but it is one that has the potential to change the world. At the very least, it can shift the energies in our immediate life, by enabling us to choose to see the light that is absent in the darkness, and the goodness that resides in the essence of every person, opportunity, and experience we are presented with. As Nischala Joy Devi notes, in her wonderfully transformative interpretation of the Sutras, The Secret Power of Yoga , Pratipaksha Bhavana it is a personal practice that "helps to change my attitude rather than hoping to change the situation or the people who 'cause me' to be unhappy....