Pain, aggravation, suffering of any kind. We all go through it. The question is, how do you handle it after the fact? The expedient response is to simply don’t do that again! Just stop doing those things that cause you pain. Makes sense, no reason to bang your head against the wall. Just cut those actions out of your life. Don’t go down that road again.
Yes, that’s the safe approach, but is it always the best approach? By doing so, you are limiting your choices, limiting your very existence.
Imagine that your physical body represents all the opportunity, adventure, and richness that this existence has to offer. As you are running through the forest, enjoying your body and all that is the forest, you stump your toe on a root. You fall to the ground in terrible pain, your big toe throbbing and bloody.
Clearly, your big toe has failed you. It didn’t get out of the way of that root and has caused you tremendous pain and suffering. The cause of your fall cannot be denied. The expedient response is to remove that which caused you pain. Cut the toe off! The pain and bleeding will stop and you will never again stump that toe on a root in the forest.
But wait a minute, was it really the toe’s fault? What about the eyes that didn’t see the root or the brain that didn’t tell the toe to get out of the way? Maybe it was the muscles of the leg that didn’t lift the leg high enough. Does cutting off the toe really address the cause of your pain or only the end result? It seems the entire body carries some responsibility. The actual cause of the pain may be systemic.
Perhaps the better choice is to forgive the toe for any failure, recognizing that the entire body carries some of the blame for the failure to clear the root. Maybe the only way to protect the body is to cherish and love the big toe without condition, recognizing that stumping a toe is a part of the opportunity, adventure, and richness of this existence.
Our lives are no different. Each of our lives is made up of multiple individuals, experiences, and circumstances that intertwine and comingle with every other life it the tapestry of Creation. To shun any part of it is to limit the completeness of your life for the short-term gain of a little less pain.
Instead, wrap your pain in unconditional Love, recognizing that the ultimate cause is much more complex than a single offending action. Forgive the “failure” that causes you pain without condition as nothing more than a part of life. With complete and unconditional forgiveness, including self-forgiveness, comes healing. Healing carries with it all the opportunity, adventure, and richness that life has to offer.
Now we are doing yoga…
Namaste
Blair is the co-owner of Yoga Daily in Mt. Pleasant, SC. [https://yogadailymountpleasant.com] He is a certified yoga instructor, recovering lawyer, and a spiritual student. The content of this blog is what Blair considers to be universal truths that span all dogma and religion and it is offered to you in Love and Light. Check out Yoga Dude for additional blog entries. You can contact Blair at [email protected]. Yoga is but one path to knowing that we are all One. Please take what resonates with you and leave the rest without judgment or offense.