As I’ve slowly, reluctantly reconnected with social media in the last crazy week I’ve been touched by the wisdom and insight and power shared by so many beautiful teachers with whom I’ve had the fortune to study and practice over the years. Like so many of them (and you), I’ve asked myself how I’m truly being called to show up right now...by harnessing the isolation to go deeper inward? by doubling down to support my coaching clients as they navigate social isolation and new schedules and financial insecurities? by mobilizing to put my yoga classes online? by helping my husband hustle to fill the sudden crazed demand for his Fire Ciders, supporting people to bolster immunity against the virus? by staying connected to family and friends in all the ways I’m able?
I can try to figure out how to balance all these roles...or I can allow the present reality to create a centrifuge, extracting the most useful aspects of my work in the world, leaning into where my gut tells me to spend my time and energy and how. There’s no roadmap for this, but there are infinite practices to help ground and anchor and direct us through it. The fear that’s pervading right now seems to be suffocating so many—the big fears of impermanence and sickness and death mingling with endless fears of social and emotional and financial discomfort. This is an opportunity to investigate all these fears so we can harness and redirect all that energy. So I’ve been returning to a practice that has been so powerful for me over the years: Metta, or Lovingkindness. The practice is to repeat phrases silently again and again, and by doing so redirecting our neural pathways from fear and judgment towards compassion and love.
May we all be safe.
May we all be healthy.
May we all be happy.
May we all live with ease.
And may we all show up truly as we’re called, especially now.
I’ve recorded a distilled version of Lovingkindness practice HERE and hope it supports you in these wild times.
