The Shakti Shine - August 10, 2020
Shakti Love Notes
We are always growing. I love that! And the more I grow, the more I recognize how important it is for us all to share what we're going through-- even (and especially) me.
So these Love Notes are a space for me to share with you each week-- about the studio, my life, how our community is growing.
Self-learning is a process of living.
Yesterday I spent most of the day trying to be motivated to do any of the things on my list that could have been done. It didn't work, and I spent a good bit of time just lying on my bed, belly down. Later in the day I finally took a long, humid walk, talked to a friend, and listened to WAP on repeat... those things kind of helped. Then I had a milkshake and went to bed.
And you know what, I still don't feel motivated this morning. I think I'll do the minimum of my commitments, try to find some time to be outside, and give myself permission to do whatever I feel like doing.
This feeling isn't unfamiliar. But it is uncomfortable. It feels like a valve has been closed. I feel constricted from my heart-space up into my head. It's like my body is sending every signal possible asking me to drop into heart and down, into body.
Usually my first thought when I feel this way is WHY. Well, could be the fact that I spent 65 hours present with our teacher trainees last week...LOL... But the truth is that it doesn't necessarily matter why.
It just is.
One of my favorite quotes is by Eckhart Tolle and it goes like this: “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”
It would be nice if inner reflection and self-learning could be something I prepared for, as if life is like the calculus test I studied for in high school. But it's not like that at all. Life can't be studied for.
Life has to be lived.
It's a process. And something I know to be true is that no feeling I've ever had has lasted forever.
So what does it mean to trust the living?
In teacher training we talk a lot about fullest expression. To me this means self-learning through the process of living. It means giving up the labels that make the feelings mean so much (about who I am as a person). It means leaning in to the ebb and the flow, whenever they show up. It means listening to what I need and being the one who meets my needs, especially when that requires asking others for support.
Get present to what's here now.
Maybe this is a new way of being: Take good care of yourself, and don't make things mean so much. Ask yourself questions. Give up the need to be good, right, look good, or perform. Listen. Do what feels right. Ask for support. Stop. What would it be like to just be?
I imagine that if I trusted what's present then this constricted feeling wouldn't feel so uncomfortable. It would just be. It would just be what tells me to stop. And what if I actually stopped for a moment? Imagine eventually I'd be ready to go again.
I imagine that could really feel like living.
xx
RubyAugust's Theme: ACCEPTANCE
w/ @thedualityproject
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Fall 2020 Teacher Training!!!
We’ve decided to make this training choose what you need & what feels safe. This means that you can participate in all 8 modules online.
4 weekends will be optional in person (IP) at The Studio in Athens, GA (pending health & safety precautions due to COVID-19)
3 weekends will be only online (OO)
+ 1 retreat weekend (R) in Blue Ridge, GA (pending in person or online)
SEPTEMBER 12-13 (IP) , 26-27 (OO)
OCTOBER 10-11 (IP), 24-25 (OO)
NOVEMBER 7-8 (IP), 21-22 (R)
DECEMBER 5-6 (OO), 12-13 (IP)