BLOG: FOUR WAYS TO REACH FOR YOUR HIGHER SELF (WHEN YOU’RE FEELING FRUSTRATED).
I’ve lost count of what week we’re on now since we locked down the studio. Honestly, I’m tired, frustrated, pissed off. (Not what you expect a yoga teacher to say?) Oh well, if I didn’t say it and felt it, there’s no sense in that (Is that from a Dido song?) Yep… White Flag…. Love that track.
It’s also been a while since I sat down and blogged. Proper blogged. I’m scrolling through my archives now. Yeah, I’ve posted consistently all year, but it’s been from a ‘social distance’. (See what I did there?).
That wasn’t the case in the beginning, when these ramblings were more open (because I didn’t expect them to ever be read) and there was no purpose other than to find my purpose…
So heck, fully loaded, this is me July 2020. I’m pissed off. 😝
Here’s the because….
Why can’t I open our yoga studio?
How come you can have a driving lesson, get your hair cut, go to the pub, dine out but you can’t do one of the best things for coping with the stress, isolation, worry and fear of being in a pandemic!!!
Yeah, I’m noticing this imbalance, this flare up. So what’s a yoga teacher to do?
Reach! No, not for the stars… (I can’t help it… everything’s got a melody in my head)… no this is more reach inwards…where I know the rewards are to be had. I’m just noticing a temporary blockage.
I’m in my own self-enforced ‘lockdown’ brought on by…. my ego!
And who knew, this week I’d be teaching Asmita to you guys… falsely identifying with the ego self and how it causes suffering. 🤔 (Remember I teach as much to myself as I do to you).
Anyways… what do we need to learn here? Well…
Yoga teaches us that there is more than one way to see the world.
- Through the ego – when we root our sense of identity in the objects of perception and through our sense of me, mine, my and I.
- Through the higher self – when you sense of identity is rooted in your inner awareness.
Guess where I’ve been hanging lately? No prizes… sorry!
The journey back is not a huge one to make thankfully. And I’ll give you some tips on how we do that in a sec.
But first… don’t make the number one mistake that most people make – your ego is not separate to you. It may behave differently to your higher self, but they are intrinsically connected.
You are in ego when you focus on the needs of me, mine and my (and this is not bad , it’s just one way and level of living in and experiencing the world).
To get to the higher self requires a shift above the drama, approaching difficulties with generosity of spirit… (I never said this was easy by the way!). But stay with it…as this keeps us from being lost in victimisation, depression and self-pity and squares the focus way more on self-awareness ,the expansion of our whole being and ultimately is the route to health and happiness.
So, if you want to move from a single isolated individual just trying to stay alive and move into enjoying the more uplifting and unifying qualities of consciousness you can do any number of these 4 things.
- Practice gratitude
- Practice appreciation
- Practice compassion
- Practice grace.
This will shift you into your higher self, which, remember, is with you all the time. It is your-self-awareness.
The higher you, the underlying nature of you, is spirit (or soul – you can choose your language). It’s way more stable than the ego (which can shift from propping you up to bringing you down in a heartbeat – you know what I’m talking about?.
Spirit on the other hand is unchanging and all knowing, and in that space, we can place faith and trust that all will be well. We can take the next right step, one step at a time and we can become one with the order of all things… flow with the universe if you like? (Even when we’re not sure where that’s taking us).
The rewards? Well I believe that spirit is the place of possibility and potential (where the magic and the dreams and the miracles happen. It’s freedom too! Freedom from the demands of the ego, its fears, its worries its limitations.
So here goes reconnecting to who I really am through some gratitude practice.
Here it is…
- I’m grateful that I’m still in business and doing what I love to do in difficult circumstances.
- I appreciate that I have a wonderful community of members who (I think) get me.
- I’m grateful for the believers in my life who have got me this far and continue to support my journey in life.
- I’m compassionate for myself. I’m human and I will experience the world every now and then through the veil of the ego and all its demands.
- And I welcome grace. Because when I get out of my own way, and let grace in, I know I’ll get to see the miracle of it all… in time.
J X
