So Very Tender, & I Have No Need to Complain

• Today’s questions: What deeper purpose is this moment calling you into?

• Today's suggested practice: Day 1 of this month's practice, to prepare to receive it all.

• My practice: 5AM: 45 minutes: Yoga, then a series of mantra meditations, ending with Gayatri meditation…

• My vulnerability practice: The confusion begins to subside…

Hans Peter Meyer

TODAY’S MEDITATION

It is so personal. So personal that there is only one way to be, and that is to slow down.

Slow down. Do not get swept up in the urgency of time running out, of dwindling days to possibly spend time together. Be grateful for these random experiences.

Notice. Breathe.

Allow her to move, in her way, in her time.

Feel her closing, but not as rejection.

Know her opening, but not as license.

Lead her by attending to her, creating the space so that she can feel free to be and love as she is capable, as she is drawn to be, to love.

…

Once I see that it is not personal only then is it possible for me to see, clearly, that She brings me everything that is needed.

This is the work of preparation, as Shaun Cooke reminded me in our recent podcast conversation: we prepare our masculine capacity —whether we identify as men or as women or neither or both— to receive. This is the preparatory work, a path I walk, every day, every moment of every day (unless I am not paying attention, which happens all too often!). This path, what I call the Path of the Sacred Masculine, is to know the seeming slights of life, what She brings, as impersonal. Then, and only then, am I able to receive Her gifts. And, as Shaun made clear, this receiving, this is our work, because to simply receive seems too strange for us who have been trained to strive, to grasp, to take.

To allow myself to receive. So simple. So hard. Because I resist, or will not feel.

And so then, paradoxically, it is also possible to see that it is all so very personal. Impersonally personal. Realizing this, I have no need to complain.

TODAY’S INSPIRATIONS

🌀 Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. (Melody Beattie)

🌀…take the lead with your personal example; […] ...reclaim your natural intelligence...be a human being, being humane. (Guru Singh and Guruperkarma Kaur)

🌀You are beautiful. (My beloved, my Oracle and Siren)

🌀Now, the practice of yoga begins. (Patanjali, Yoga Sutra 1.1)

TODAY'S SUGGESTED PRACTICE

Day 1 of this month's practice:

Please read through first, then ...

- Today, set two alarms, one for the early part of your day, one for late afternoon when you may be feeling low energy.

- When the alarm sounds, wherever and however you are, take less than three minutes to do this short practice:

Stand or sit, with a beautiful and straight spine, feeling your feet or your sit bones heavy and connected to the earth;

Close your eyes;

Inhale deeply into your belly, letting it become soft and round;

Exhale by gently and slowly, much more slowly than your inhale, pressing your navel to your spine;

Repeat three times, letting the front of your body become softer and more open to receive as your shoulders relax and your spine remains firm.

• When you’re done, stand for another minute and breathe gently, slowly filling and emptying your belly.

• Notice if your body-mind feels somehow changed. And whether you notice a change or not, be content with yourself, exactly as you are in this moment.

• Continue with your day until the next alarm sounds, and repeat.

Ps. I’d love to hear from you and how these chapters are resonating! Please book a no-charge 15-minute Zoom chat here: sacredbodies.ca/chat.