Please print this lifeletter if you can. It is meant to be held in your hand

Sometimes I think when people look back at this time on earth, they’re going to call it ‘The Age of Uncertainty.’ It feels like we’re living in a bubbling cauldron of change. Remember that ride at the fun park that whirled you around and then removed the floor? It seems like the ground we’ve been standing on is getting pretty shaky.

Many of the people I work with struggle with survival anxiety. Sometimes I do too. Our survival personalities are very strong and deep. They want safety, security, approval, and known quantities to live by. These are very natural human urges. The only thing is, they have nothing to do with the deeper impulses of the heart, soul and spirit.

I read a great book a while ago, called ‘Deep Survival.’ It is a well documented and researched account of who makes it through drastic survival situations, and why. It touched on all kinds of wilderness disasters, concentration camp episodes, and 9/11.

What the author discovered is not what you would think. In all these situations, it was not the well- trained and experienced ones who survived. It was the people who could remain present, and respond creatively, from their intuitive wisdom. That really got to me. Presence and creativity are the foundation stones for all the work I do. I’ve always known that they are essential for our evolution and awakening. I didn’t know that they were essential for our survival.

Deep Survival

Sometimes I think when people look back at this time on earth, they’re going to call it ‘The Age of Uncertainty.’ It feels like we’re living in a bubbling cauldron of change. Remember that ride at the fun park that whirled you around and then removed the floor? It seems like the ground we’ve been standing on is getting pretty shaky.

Many of the people I work with struggle with survival anxiety. Sometimes I do too. Our survival personalities are very strong and deep. They want safety, security, approval, and known quantities to live by. These are very natural human urges. The only thing is, they have nothing to do with the deeper impulses of the heart, soul and spirit.

I read a great book a while ago, called ‘Deep Survival.’ It is a well documented and researched account of who makes it through drastic survival situations, and why. It touched on all kinds of wilderness disasters, concentration camp episodes, and 9/11.

What the author discovered is not what you would think. In all these situations, it was not the well- trained and experienced ones who survived. It was the people who could remain present, and respond creatively, from their intuitive wisdom. That really got to me. Presence and creativity are the foundation stones for all the work I do. I’ve always known that they are essential for our evolution and awakening. I didn’t know that they were essential for our survival.

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Questions and Possibilities for Inner Inquiry

· Exploring the Warrior Archetype: This way of being has great gifts and great limitations as well. In what way is this archetype confining me right now? How could I find access to a softer, gentler part of myself?

· Asking for help: What kind of prayer or request could I make to life, spirit or the universe at this point in my life journey? How does my heart want to ask for help? How do I ask without demanding and without limiting the possibilities that might be available for me right now, if I am really open?

· Self nurturing: How do I discover what I need right now to nourish my body, mind, heart, spirit and creativity? Can I allow myself to let go of what I think I should be doing? (yoga, straight back meditation, cleansing, etc.) and listen deeply inside myself for what I am drawn to do, and can actually do, right in this moment.  How does it feel to lie in bed when I am tired, and do some deep breathing and tapping, instead of trying something more rigorous? How does it feel to take baby steps, and just try writing for 10 minutes a day?

There’s something I don’t think I made clear in our session. It was the part about doing something other than your passion or your dream.

I want to make it clear that I am not suggesting you give up on your dream for a minute!

What I learned from my coaches is that while we are working on what we really want to do, it can help a lot to stay open to other possible ways of receiving income, so that our dream or passion does not bear the burden of financial desperation.

These other ways can be things that we also enjoy and learn from, even if they are not the number one thing we want to be doing.

As I said to you, I always thought of that as a compromise, as if I had to give up on what I wanted most in order to open to other possibilites. Now I see it another way, and realize how fixed I was in my own ideas of how the universe should be supporting me.

For me, it was very liberating to let go of that fixation and say to Life, “Okay, I’m open..whatever needs to happen-how do I know what that is? I’m not running this whole show. Let me be open to the mystery and grace that is the source of everything I know.”

Dedicated to your Optimal Well Being and Full Aliveness

Issue #1

Dear students and friends:

This is the first issue of the Soma Yoga newsletter. I have put you on this list if you are a yoga student, or someone I think might be interested. If you do not want to receive this newsletter, please put Remove in the subject box, hit Reply, and I’ll remove you right away, with great willingness. I do not want to clog up your inbox with emails you are not going to read.
If, on the other hand, you know someone who might benefit from this newsletter, please pass it on to them. Thank you!
Please remember to put my name on your email white list, so your spam detector doesn’t throw me away.

A Place To Sit

Don’t go outside your house to see flowers
My friend, don’t bother with the excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers…
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it,
before gardens and after gardens. (Kabir)

Yoga and Community
On one level, your yoga practice is all about your relationship with yourself. As one of my students at the government building said recently, “I love it, because it’s a non-competitive sport!” But on another level, yoga is all about community. Doing yoga with people offers you a simple and very profound way of connecting. It’s been a great joy for me to watch deep friendships evolve in my yoga classes over the years. Just by being present, just be showing up, and witnessing the efforts of the people in your class, you offer them a great deal. Don’t underestimate the value of what you are giving and receiving through your yoga practice.

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I’ve been lucky enough over the past six years to have 5 children born in my immediate neighborhood. I’ve witnessed a lot of natural and exuberant learning and evolution, right in my own back yard. Isn’t it amazing to think that every human being walking around on our planet learned how to walk in the same way: by standing up and falling over, standing up, taking a step and falling over, again and again and again.

Then we start thinking, once we’re a bit older, that our learning should proceed in an entirely different manner. Sometimes it does, but there is still a lot of falling down and getting up that is an essential part of human life. Have you noticed this? Learning to accept this aspect of life as a given and work with it in a good way can release a lot of our suffering. Molly Gordon, a wonderful coach I have worked with, speaks about learning how to “bow to failure.” When we bow to our failures, we look a little deeper than how things first appear. We get curious enough about the nature of life to consider that perhaps failure is not something to be shunned and avoided at all costs. What if our failures bring us something just as valuable as our successes? This has been a big learning for me, and I’d like to share some of it here.

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