A simple Prayer

The last fifteen weeks I have experienced the edges of my own mental health.  I’m guessing you have, too.

I stayed positive for two months: I lost fifteen pounds, my practice was deep, my cardio was daily, and my attitude was spacious and hopeful.  

But I had trouble maintaining that.  My personal patterns of anxiety and fear came to the surface and knocked me down a little.  My careful sugar intake became not-so-careful. My daily vinyasa practice waned. My cardio flew away. My attitude shifted from being spacious and hopeful to contracted and fearful.

Consistency is key for me, as well as a challenge.  By Memorial Day I was struggling with my own consistency. Taking care of myself felt like moving through molasses. When I feel stress, I struggle to use the long-term techniques that I know work. Instead, I go for short-term fixes of sugar, intoxicants, and way too much sci-fi. 

Do you know what shifted me?  A few things:

Teaching the 30 day challenge:

Showing up for others, not myself, provided some fresh, hopeful energy.  Community is powerful and one of the reasons many of us are struggling right now. We miss our community of people. I’m not just speaking of our MBSY community, although for me, that is primary.  It could be your extended family community, your church or temple community, or your work community.

Time with my spiritual teacher:

We all need help.  We all need guidance. We all need support sometimes. Lately my biggest takeaways from my spiritual teacher are “Less guilt, more grace” and remembering “I am THE GREAT I am.”

Seeing my parents:

My dad has Alzheimer’s, and not seeing him or being able to support my mom for three months was achingly painful. 

And little by little, the sun rises in my mind again (because it always does) and my energy shifts and hope reappears.  It is still precarious.  But leaning into community feels like a true healing.

My prayer for you today and always:

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you be free from suffering.