“Take care of the inside and the outside falls into place.”
As we begin to wrap up the year, I am reminded of the necessity of taking care of ourselves. While the outside is important, it is the inside that matters most.
As I write this, I am sitting near a window overlooking the ocean during a stormy day. The wind is howling, heavy rain is falling, and the ocean is dark with large crashing waves; the outside world seemingly a scene of chaos. But if you were to dive deep enough into the water, you would discover a world unaffected by the storm above.
Underneath is a quiet, calm, and peaceful world.
We are this way too. Our outer world is often filled with confusing chaos where we desperately seek quiet refuge. But the refuge we seek we will never find in the outside world.
The refuge you seek is within you.
We have to be willing to go deep enough inside of our own self. It is there, underneath all the noise and movement, where we will find peace.
Our original true nature is peace.
It is not something we need to create, we simply need to remember.
Once we let go of the outer world, releasing our attachment to the impermanence of material things, we are able to reside in our true nature.
Like our asana practice, this is life long work. Challenges will always arise, but with awareness we can keep coming back. We might say to ourselves that we do not feel at peace and so therefore it is not there, or that we cannot access it. But that thought comes from our body consciousness – the part of ourselves that identify with our body and the material world. Our higher self, our soul consciousness already knows our true nature. At the soul level is where we need to shift our thoughts and remember our source – the spark of the divine within.
For each of us, may this holiday season bring the gift of remembering our true nature and the ability to reside in our inner peace.
Beneath the surface of the every storm is stillness.
Om Shanti
Categories: Yoga & Mindfulness Blog