March 2023 Week 4

Spring arrived this week!! We are moving out of the darkness into more light in our days, how about our hearts and minds? Monday was the spring equinox, this is a sign of rebirth, a time of tradition and a harmonious balance between day and night. So rather than jumping into looking for more light in our lives and hearts, how about we look for the harmonious balance of “darkness and light, good and bad”? Our intention - I am imperfect, like everyone else, and that is ok - is giving us the opportunity, with awareness, to embrace our own darkness and light. At this time of rebirth, how can we each look at ourselves with more acceptance and compassion and less judgement?

“May we conquer the mind so we may conquer the world. This is the art of the spiritual warrior.” Kia Miller.
In my classes you may recall a quote from Pema Chodren that I often say while holding warrior 2, the spiritual warrior pose. She says a spiritual warrior is someone who can stay 1.6 seconds longer in discomfort because they did the work. Without the spiritual work we can’t stay and learn, the more work we do, the more seconds we can stay. This is a never ending process and for me my spiritual work must be repeated on a daily basis. I fessed up on week 1 that this intention was self serving for me as I need to bring more compassion and acceptance to my view of myself these days. I am not sure if it is the medication I am on, the string of cloudy days (sun finally out this week) or just life but I am doing a number on myself and I am willing and ready to make a shift. I am not going to full light and no darkness, but this time of equinox is a more accurate representation of ourselves - we are all imperfect in our own ways and my imperfections are no “better” or “worse” than anyone else’s. Can I get with that and give myself a break?? I am certainly moving in this direction! This is important for the quality of my life as well as my health. The more I study, the clearer it is being shown to me that stress, worry and negative mindsets contribute to poor physical health and at their extreme, disease. We need to take care of our whole self - body, mind and soul, it is worth it!!