Absorbing forecasts
and cultivating joy.
It’s truth telling time.
I heard myself speak the untrue words “I feel like there is no joy in my life” to sweetheart Brandon just shy of 3 weeks ago and it was then that I realized-
I. am. not. okay.
Am I relatively okay? obviously. I have shelter, true love and support most people would only dream of obtaining but that doesn’t mean emotions can’t run high and crazily from failing to tend to oneself.
I talk exhaustingly about developing a generous listening practice with oneself. I see it as a means of taking healing into your own hands, claiming agency and conspiring to create a life that has meaning and heart-centeredness fuelling as much of it as possible.
What I don’t mention nearly as often, is what to do with the insights and understandings that follow the listening and acknowledging. I believe that yoga’s ask of us it to come into awareness of whatever is and to most simply allow it. Not to judge it, praise it or associate with it- but to notice and compassionately accept what the reality at hand is made up of.
That is what I’ll describe as “absorbing the forecasts”
It’s not all that revolutionary but without the acceptance and workability around the seasons that we are currently meeting and experiencing— it can feel hopelessly hard.
So what do we do about it?
We name it to terminate it and we devise a compassionate plan of action to get on course with joy. Because SHIT, life is too short and if we aren’t being human connecting with each other in presence, love and joy.. than what is the point of life?
Nothing like sounding as if I’m mid existential crisis just because I sit more than practice yoga these days, eh?
It’s no longer about surviving the present.
It’s no longer about envisioning a time of deliverance far off into the future.
It’s no longer about confirmation or reassurance of your greatness.
It’s about helping you FIND THE JOY available to you TODAY.
Because each DAY brings with it different versions of JOY.
Some weeks are about friends and rest.
Some weeks are about risk-taking and launching projects.
Some weeks are about learning and reflecting about the secrets of life.
Some weeks are about resting and doing nothing.
All weeks are about JOY, or at least a kind of JOY available to you in the moment.
Remember JOY. Remember how awesome it is to feel it.
Remember how it cleans your soul when you allow yourself to be swallowed by it.
The above excerpt is the blessing that was an email that found me at the most opportune time. The message is simple but it felt like a gym bag hitting upside the head— it’s all about letting in what feels good and being in joy.
I almost hate to agree with the cheesiest of messaging because of its simplicity, however it is too true to survive my aversion. I took a few days to just BE, to be with friends, to LIVE in the presence of sound and love and the result was astonishing.
I became my favourite self in the blink of an eye.
I’m not preaching positive toxicity and insinuating that you just need to think a happy thought and voila, struggles be gone! I am however, inviting you into the awareness that adding deliberate practices and moments of BEING inside a full day of DOING—recalibrates and heals imbalance superbly.
I am your testament and if you’ll allow it, my falling back into joy can be your expander.
Full transparency, I could not walk without wincing as a follow up to this bad boy pre-recorded practice. Maybe it was the bum levers or maybe dehydration? Either way, it’s a fun DOOZY of a 15 minute burner that makes it easier to like the savage wind.
Go buck wild and try it outside, is my unsolicited advice.
With love, I remind us that these practices aren’t wonderful reflections of yoga’s compassionate, self-aware principles so to take this effortful movement with a grain of salt.
Get your journal..
How do you define joy?
How does your body signal joy?
What “season” of life are you in?
How are you absorbing said forecast?
What does harmonized living look like to you?
If joy belongs within that harmony, can you describe it in detail?
devise a manageable plan of action to integrate daily tiny moments of joy
May we part ways knowing that you are loved and that your health and joy are being wished for by a sweet stranger on the internet named Marlies.
Bye for now cuties. Please share with those that resonate and seriously consider supporting your yoga teacher by switching to a paid subscription ❤️
MUAH!