Author: ratnadyer

Letting go is accepting what is there, leaning into it with trust in the moment and then moving beyond it.

To let go of something first requires acceptance and allowing of it in the moment.
We can’t let go of something before it’s been fully seen.

After ten years of practicing the same primary series sequence of Ashtanga yoga, I find I am learning and connecting with more than I ever knew was there or was possible.
The asanas (postures) are the same every time. The movements and breath and gaze is the same structure and count every time, and yet my experience when I am present and awake, is new every time.
Going deep into one practice, is the pathway home.

There is ultimately more fulfilment and variation found through going deep with presence and connectedness into one practice or expertise, than there is in skipping around on the surface finding new stuff all the time.

Commitment is such a gift and can bring such joy.

Don’t think of letting go as an end point to be achieved. Letting go is approached better as a moment by moment intention with attending inwardly to the relationship we are having with our feelings and experiences.

Peace and wisdom aren’t about knowing the answers, they are in BEING the answer.

Love helps us find balance and release.

There are parts of all of us that we find hard, that we can feel like we need to get rid of, change or fix.
Parts of us that we might have been conditioned into thinking are unacceptable, unwanted, or not loveable.

Social conditioning is important to help us operate in society with care and awareness of others. And at the same time it has a way of kind of teaching us to judge aspects of our human experience and often to learn to repress or suppress our struggle or our difficult feelings.

Finding emotional wellbeing involves being willing and aware to show care, compassion and support to the feeling parts inside us as they arise. Not to avoid, judge, oppose or deny them, or to see them as problems to be fixed.

Being kind with ourselves is so important.

We all judge things and other people. Judging, measuring and comparison are all simply a part of how the mind functions to keep us safe and to make sense of our physical reality.

It’s not that judging is wrong per se. It’s more about how conscious we are about it, and what we do with our judgements.

When we judge ourselves for judging, this just keeps us where we are. It is just more of the same.

Instead bring in kindness and patience with your mind and then take responsibility; acknowledge what you would like to change, be kind to yourself around it, and put action and awareness behind supporting yourself to make an improved choice next time.

Sometimes all we need to do is mindfully see our judging thought. Just name it: there is a judging thought. And decide not pick it up or give it any further juice, power or attention.

People looking for a miracle overlook the miracle of life everywhere all the time.

Nothing, not even the slightest exhale of emotion, is not worthy of love.

No expression of human experience needs be dismissed as unwanted or unspiritual when we are learning to be present, heart centered, compassionate beings.

To find our true happiness and inner peace, we must listen to our inner experience and notice where we unconsciously/almost automatically push some parts of their process away.

And when we do go toward our challenging feelings, we need to practise discerning where the balance is between compassionate allowing inclusion, and where we might be re-striking the wheel of thoughts that keep us entrenched, identified, stuck and victimised.

In the end (and from the beginning) all that remains is loving awareness.

In learning to listen, we need to be present moment by moment with our senses to life all around us, or to what a person is saying. We need to release the layer of thoughts we are having about everything and to not be already caught up in our mind with what we are going to say.