The Smoothness of Being

"The Smoothness of Being"... that was the mantra that came to me during a wonderful Savasana, or "corpse pose" experience right after my yoga class.  For my non-yoga readers, Savasana is the state of relaxation and meditation that occurs after the yoga class.  In fact the yoga itself is the set up for the entry point into Savasana.  Yoga moves the body and relaxes the mind so that the mind can slow its' chatter to allow for a deeper Savasana.

Moments of insight are rare or brief, even in meditation.  Often it just feels good; but this time as I was lying there, I felt the smoothness of the floor beneath me.  My mind jumped suddenly to a time when I wasn't happy in my life. A time before I myself entered into counseling.  It was a time when it was a struggle to be in my body, dealing with so many disappointments and conflicting emotions.  But through the therapeutic journey I felt better and better, until I gained a "smoothness" in being myself again.  My internal monsters didn't scare me any longer and when they did appear it was ok; I could accept them.  It became easier to be in my body, to be in my brain.  I could stop myself from getting caught up in the struggle within and instead I could honor the timing of my life as it played out its story.

C.G. Jung has brought us the gift of working with our "Shadow" our "unrecognized, unconscious aspect of the personality. Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspects of one's personality, the shadow is largely negative. There are, however, positive aspects which may also remain hidden in one's shadow." The shadow, Jung believed, is "the seat of our creativity."

What I find so important to remember is the shadow is a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious, the inner world and the outer world and it is necessary and vital.  Not something to be irradicated or even shunned. Like all of our aspects in our personality, shadow aspects play an important role.  Debbie Ford wrote a fabulous book on how to work with shadow called The Dark Side of The Light Chasers.

Learning to love what we have created thus far in our lives shifts the focus off of what is broken and moves our awareness to what is still whole; because let's face it, there is always something broken or about to break in our lives - we don't have to be perfect to do our life's work, and to accomplish our goals, or even to fix what we can. When we begin to appreciate ourselves and how far we have come in this moment, then we lose our roughness, and tightness, and allow for the smoothness of being ourselves, as we journey forward in creating the life we desire and deserve.

"For happiness , how little suffices for happiness!...the least thing precisely, the gentlest thing, the lightest thing, a lizard's rustling, a breath, a disk, an eye glance - little maketh up the best happiness. Be still"  - Nietzsche.

"Try to be like the turtle- at ease in your own shell" - Bill Copeland.