First you realise you didn’t travel home alone. True, you may have done some work on silencing your ego – but now you know it was only to make room for a whole new conversation – this time with your deeper self.
In Chopra world you got real comfy with its nurturing voice. It was the one prompting you to ditch old ways of living (and believing) and reach whole new levels of awareness. It was persistently nudging you forward in the direction of helping you discover your truer, best version of you.
In the safety and support of the retreat you allowed your deeper self to rise to the surface. And, armed with your knowledge of the Law of Least Effort, you got to show up every day just as you are…
Now you’re home it’s not so easy. Why?
Deepak tells us it is simply fear. We fear we will lose something important in our life if we make the changes our deeper self is contemplating. Not only that, our families and friends fear they will lose something important in their life if we make the changes our deeper self is urging us to.
In my case this is what that looks like…
Child 1:
Fear: Losing hamburgers, gaining hummus… and being asked to meditate.
Child 2
Fear: Losing Xbox time, having to eat rainbow veggies…and being asked to meditate,
Significant other:
Fear: Losing his woman to a ‘religious cult’, losing Xbox time, being asked to help prepare meals with ‘a thousand and one’ ingredients. Oh… and being asked to meditate.
Friend 1
Fear: Losing a drinking (and eating) partner in crime, because I’m not interested in that lifestyle any more.
Friend 2
Fear: Losing a ‘bitching’ buddy, because I’m not interested in that kind of conversation any more.
Parents
Fear: “Was this all my fault?”
Even as you continue to love your friends and family as they are and just ‘be the change’, everyday conversations can also challenge your newly cultivated centred nature. (Especially if you’re prone to any kind of Pitta imbalance – which I am).
Here are some unhelpful comments I’ve encountered so far.
“So is eating meat now ‘against your religion’?”
“How many hundreds of dollars did it cost to shit out that stuff?” (Referring to Guggulu and Triphala).
“And you really had to go all the way to California to learn how to do yoga? Can you not do that at the local community centre?”
“She’s wearing beads and shorts (she never wears shorts!). That’s it! We’ve lost her to the land of ‘woo woo’ now girls.”
“Oh, you’re not drinking? You’re not going to be boring all the time though, are you?”
Fortunately Deepak also tells us it’s in our very nature to want to grow and be authentic and because of that we will always have the resources to overcome whatever barriers we, or other people in our lives, throw up at us. The deeper self that is encouraging us forward will also provide the strength we need to break down our walls of resistance and make change happen.
I’ll meditate to that.
Namaste everyone.