Change of landscape

While driving down the coast of Southern California I listened to the Oprah radio station and of course was completely inspired by the topics of the day.  “Spirituality and the quest to find it through inner peace”, such a common topic and yet we are still trying to find it.  Here I am driving down from a yoga centric weekend in LA, completely focused on spirituality, feeding my soul, living my art, surrounded by the collective conscious.  I had just left a yoga class and drove on down to see my family in Laguna.  Walking into their reality of compromised health, family issues, and the ebbs and flows of life’s cycles.  I was very inspired to write this:

Who am I ?  Am I my story, my stories of my life, the things I’ve done, the people I know, the places I’ve been, the awards I’ve won, the endless mistakes and accomplishments survived?

What if someone were really to ask…who are you?  What would you say?

Would you say, “I am a (job description).  I went to school here…I am from …I am divorced…etc.

Well that isn’t who you are, or is it?  Really, you want to just be that?  I mean, come on!  Who are you really?  Is there substance beyond that stuff that society labels you as or that your culture has created for you?  Do you really define yourself by this b.s.?

So when you get hit by this question the next time, go for it and expose who you really are.  I dare you. I want to see if you can be in the mystery of your own unveiling and hear what your soul describes self as.  Be the pioneer of your soul’s landscape.

Other inspirations from the lecture on radio, Eckart Tolle, and Carl Jung:

The question that keeps coming up and always does as a yoga teacher is “what is spirituality?”  Why is it so important that we define this?  I feel it is because it gets confused with religion.  The two are separate and together.  “Religion is a spring board into spirituality.”  I loved this quote from the Oprah show.  Why I bring up this topic?  I feel when you really expose yourself to who you truly are, you open yourself up the mystery of life.  You begin to let go of attachments to labels, stories, and your identity to it all.  You begin to look over the landscape of your life, the people you surround yourself with, the choices you make.  Changes begin to creep in. 

If you are ready for change?  Are you ready for change?  Change takes courage and serenity, just as the “Serenity Prayer” states.  If you are ready for change, ready for renewal of self and identity…be open to the mystery and symbolic energy that leads to transformations.  Yoke your soul with your path.  Make union with your soul and universal will, or if you will, God’s will.  This seems to me like spirituality.

The word “symbol” as described by Carl Jung best describes what most of us call “a sign”.  You have all heard it, “that was a “sign” what happened to you today”.  As Jung states, a “sign can be interpreted with no loss of meaning, but a symbol is the best possible statement or expression for something that is either essentially unknowable or not yet knowable given the present state of consciousness. Symbols open one up to the mystery.  And they also combine elements of spirit and instinctuality, of image and drive.  For that reason, descriptions of exalted spiritual states and mystical experience frequently refer to physical and instinctual gratifications like nourishment and sexuality.  Mystics talk about the ecstasy of uniting with God as an orgasmic experience and most likely it is the experience of the symbol unites body and soul in a powerful, convincing feeling of wholeness. For Jung, the symbol holds so much importance because of its ability to transform natural energy into cultural and spiritual forms.” 

“Jung’s Map of the Soul” by Murray Stein

The process of your authenticity shining through may not be a smooth path and people will confront you on it.  You will be tested.  In fact you may experience “symbols” and “visions” telling you to continue on, change direction, ask for help, etc.  Be open to the mystery instead of willing your self like you have for so many years.  There is something in you, way deep down in your soul that aches for this “trail blazing”, spiritual hunger, or new design of your life.