Inner Alter
While at home tonight practicing yoga, feeling myself sink deeper into my body the image of an inner alter came into view. The picture began to unfold as a place within my heart centre, revealing tools I have learned along my journey that I can call upon anytime I need them.
Do you feel like you have a sacred space within you that you can go when life gets tough? Our best friend or loved ones may not always be there or even available in the moment we feel we need them most and then what? Yes, we can frantically call everyone we know until we reach someone but in that time, a huge amount of stress is building in the body and will need to be let out at some point. Not only that, but wouldn’t it be great to have our own self created tools and resources to draw upon? Developing ourselves in this way also strengthens our solar plexus chakra, nurturing our confidence and sense of personal power.
Many very tough challenges arise in this life, no amount of space from the situation or person or talking to death about it is going to change, resolve or release such pain. Time can be a great healer, but some deeper stuff needs to be tended to directly. All the above does is drain someone else’ energy as well as our own and causes a whole lot of drama, not to mention taking us away from the present moment where life IS unfolding and here we are lost in a story that NO LONGER EXISTS. My meditation teacher called this kind of behaviour insanity and she’s right, I get that more and more all the time and that doesn’t mean letting go of stuff is a walk in the park either, however endeavouring to do so, setting up a plan to pursue to find a place to start a practice that supports us IS moving forward, NOT doing so, is staying the SAME. The common definition of insanity: “doing the same thing and expecting a different result.”
The point I want to bring to the surface here is that of spiritual practice. You can start with any practice at all, google and choose one and then grow from there. The thing is, we all need a place to turn to within ourselves, to heal a moment, our day, our lives. A classic example is, having an argument with a friend before you are about to make a meal together and then when it comes to eating you say “yeah I’m not hungry anymore”. That is full on, I’ve decided to play the victim, yes you may feel emotional and that is just it, the emotion you are feeling what is keeping you from having dinner and the night you planned with your friend, it’s feeding off the thoughts in your head about what your friend said that pissed you off in the first place. If you had an inner alter, you would have a collection of mini healers to call upon depending on how severely emotional you are feeling. Having a daily practice cultivates a deeper level of awareness as well so gradually what happens is that we become more aware and as we become more aware, we become sensitive to when our conditioning or triggers are about to show up, we can feel eventually that energy expand in us and that is wonderful because now we can turn to our alter and choose the best remedy, meanwhile holding the space for ourselves. For example, I could remember it’s not possible to experience 2 emotions at the same time, not authentically, so I could remember this and ask myself what do I want most right now? or I could take 10 deep inhales and consciously decide to let the story go and breathe into my emotions and as I do, watch them dissolve. The list goes on, the point is, if I have never learned these practices, then how can I call upon them, how can I create my own healing?
A good place to start is to determine what triggers you most, what emotion you feel most when you get upset about most things and then get googling about what spiritual practices can help with what you’ve got going on. The first time you try a new practice, you are TRYING it, after that, it becomes your practice you commit every day to it until you feel you’ve grown out of it and then make sure you choose another one that challenges you more, keep going, you are going to need various practices to pull you through many unforeseen situations in life. I hear many people say they do not have time for a practice or ask me how I have the time for it. The answer is simple, I believe that ‘waking up’ becoming more conscious is what I am here to do, my practices support this process and I have gradually been becoming more aware and mindful for the past 16 years I have been doing them on a predominantly daily basis. What is important is to practice, even if it’s 10 minutes a day. Build your alter and take your power back.