The whole pleasure/pain response, that instinctual mechanism, is embedded in the body. We resist pain, and we hold onto what feels good. What could be more natural? And yet what could be more mechanical, conditioned and reactive? We cannot ask the deep survival patterns of our body/mind to disappear. They are very powerful, and quite essential on a certain level of our being. But if we allow this kind of conditioning to dominate us, then we cannot discover our deeper nature, which is presence-- completely open to everything as it is.

We can work with our conditioning in a much gentler way when we are already resting in presence, in an open space of non-judging awareness. This awareness is our foundation. It is simple, open, unstructured, innocent, natural, and right here.  With this kind of awareness we can begin to become intimate with our own experience, with the totality of our experience. Not separating parts out and saying, “This is me, and this is not,” but opening our arms and accepting it all.

Accepting my body just as it is in this moment, listening, breathing, moving, and letting go. When I allow my breath to mirror the openness of my awareness, then the nature of my experience begins to change. I can approach the feeling of discomfort without pulling away or resisting. I can allow myself to open to this feeling, listen to it, respect it, work with it. Not looking to a book or a CD or a teacher, but opening to the wisdom that comes through the body, from moment to moment, that emerges and then disappears. Heart beating by itself, lungs moving by themselves, resting in the simple feeling of being alive.

Some kinds of yoga emphasize the willful, effort-full aspect of the practice, as if, by trying harder, we are going to gain some control over our body. I want to look a little deeper here, because this lies at the heart of everything we are doing. 

In Soma Yoga we begin in a place of deep receptivity, with a willingness to listen to the intelligence that lives in every cell of our body, to listen and respond. Sometimes we are strengthening our core muscles, sometimes we are working with our flexibility, sometimes we are grounding our energy, sometimes we are working with the energy meridians, sometimes we are working with our brain patterns.  But we are not trying to control the life force in the body. We are opening, creating a much wider container so that the life force can flow freely, spontaneously.

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Notes from a non-dual coaching session

I was speaking with someone this morning on a non-dual coaching call. My client, whom I’ll call Bob, said to me, “I still feel separate most of the time. So I have this idea that something should change, there’s another place where I could be that is better than this. I’m just never clear about whether I exist or not.  Sometimes I lose my sense of separation, but a lot of the time it’s still here.  I’ve been wondering about this question for a long time.”

“Okay, “ I said to him. “Let’s stop right here for now. In non-dual practice, one of our main pointers is “What is natural?” Unconditioned awareness is the most natural state of all—totally uncontrived and unstructured. If I really appreciate this, then I can align my practice with something that is quite spontaneous and authentic, something arising from within me, rather than a set of instructions from outside.”

“If you, Bob, are experiencing this as a recurring question, then I hear that life is giving you this inquiry, offering this question to you as your natural koan:  ‘Am I separate or not’?

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Last week I spent a whole day out in the Slocan Valley, sitting and writing with a group of women. We sat on a porch, looking over a pool, fields full of trees and flowers, and the green mountains across the valley. The silence got deeper and deeper. We sat, we wrote, we read out loud, and worked with each other. We walked, stretched, and wrote some more. The whole day passed like this, and it was good. All my life I’ve noticed this—that when we allow ourselves to be creative, a deep contentment fills our being.

The first thing I want to say about creativity is that is belongs to all of us. We are deeply embedded in a relentlessly creative universe. The most natural way we can be is intensely creative. That’s our authentic nature. But we started to believe something else: creativity is for the gifted, for the special, for the other person, not for me.

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Cultivating Inner Qualities

Now that spring is finally here, even in snowy Canada, I’d like to share an exercise that is a great one to do in the spring.

In the Sufi tradition, students work on cultivating and nourishing what are sometimes called ‘soul qualities.’ These qualities come from our core, from presence, from the most authentic and natural part of our being.  As we grow up and become conditioned, we lose track of some of them, while we develop others. Part of what it means to grow into wholeness is to learn how to access these qualities that have been covered or hidden.

One way of doing this is to think of them as seeds you are cultivating and nourishing inside your own being.  Find a pot, fill it with good soil, and plant a seed, or more than one, in the pot. At the same time, choose a quality from the list below, or find one of your own. As you water and care for your seed and watch it emerge and grow, imagine that you are doing the same thing with this quality. Be curious, be playful in the way that you do this. Try thinking of it as a flame you are fanning, or a seed you are watering, rather than something you are lacking.

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I’m writing this in order to encourage you all to let inquiry be an organic and natural process, instead of something that you feel you have to ‘get done’ or impose on yourself.

What I suggest is that you really allow your heart and body to discern which are your questions, which ones are alive and full of meaning for you. And then it’s not about finding time to answer them, it’s about allowing yourself to live with them. For example, Echart Tolle’s question is “What is life asking of me right now?”

Write your questions down and put them on your computer, bathroom mirror or fridge. Carry them into your day, drop them into your body and your heart, and listen to see what emerges. Engage in dialogue about them with anyone else who is interested.

You are not looking for an answer with your mind. There is no answer to these questions. Your whole life is the answer. But if you really live with them, it’s a bit like being on a treasure hunt, and clues will start to appear, as you follow the living thread of your own inquiry.

I hope this helps.
love
Shayla

I’m always on the lookout for questions that can awaken, inspire and transform the whole way we relate to life. Because what I believe about the nature of existence is how I will be experiencing my life, moment to moment.

In his dialogue with Oprah, Eckhart Tolle speaks of a question we can all ask ourselves: “What does life want of me?” Instead of “What do I want of life?” turn it around and ask, “What is life asking of me right now?” If you really ask this question, not just with your mind, but with your heart and body as well, it acts as a
gateway to a whole new way of being in the world.

The other one I love is “What is my relationship to this moment? Am I fighting it, resisting it, arguing with it? Or I am open to it, one with it?” and “What do I want my relationship to this moment to be? Do I want to fight with it, or hope for a better moment in the future? Or do I want to rest here, as I am, and allow this moment to reveal itself to me?”

The way I relate to each moment is the way I relate to this vast mysterious thing we call life.

Enjoy your day.

Love
Shayla

Dear friends: Understanding that we are all interconnected is something that could change the way you experience life in a major way. These discoveries are now emerging in every field, from medicine to quantum physics. Helping you open to a deep sense of interconnection, and your ‘invisible network of support’ is now an integral part of my work.

Here is a great example from Adam Dreamhealer, in response to someone who asked him what he actually sees when he is engaged in his healing work.

Indra’s Net

This universe is like an endless net of invisible threads of energy, of life.  The vertical threads are time, the horizontal threads are space.
In every place where the threads cross, there is a living being, shining like a jewel in this vast net.
The light of Being shines through and penetrates each living point.
And every being shines, reflecting itself, and also reflecting everything -all the reflections of all the reflections in the universe.
We are not separate (Adam Dreamhealer)

There is a wonderful website called livingthefield.com (Lynne McTaggart) that has a lot more information about the field of non-local energy that connects us all.

with love
Shayla Wright
‘Barefoot Journeys’ coaching, courses, workshops & retreats
http://www.barefootjourneys.net