Helpless! That’s the raw truth of it. At moments I feel helpless.
All of my familiar ways of being, moving through the world, and supporting a community (both local and global) have shifted dramatically.
Through this, I have found myself fumbling with how to be both the root of these teachings—these practices that help us weather the wild undulations, dramas, loves and losses, wins and fails—and the space holder for the grief, fear, anxiety that seem to be a condition of the times.
Here is what I return to again and again: these teachings have been around for thousands of years. They’ve sustained through atrocities, pandemics, and tribulations we cannot fathom. They remain relevant in all of it.
The teachings hold a thread that weaves the tapestry of a life. When I’m willing to wake up from the dream and the narrative given to me, pick up the sword of discernment, cut through illusion and misperception…the practices are always relevant. In all of it.
So, this is what I come back to in those moments when I feel this helplessness.
With the fires raging in Northern California, I once again, look to what I CAN OFFER as one individual—as one human being breathing in the smoke and ash of so many dreams and hopes. What I find is a community that steps up for each other, a community that has gathered around the resources of the principles of yoga.
While the teachings do not directly quench or calm the blaze, I return to trust the depth of that resource to help us remember our humanness, our strength, and our capacity for self-care through any fire.
Along the way, know that my heart, mind, body are continuously searching for ways to support during this time despite the moments I flounder.
I am here.
Janet Stone began her studentship at 17 under the meditation teachings of Prem Rawat. His reverence for simplicity and finding joy in the rise and fall of life live on in her practice and teaching today. She shares from the alchemy of her own sadhana through bhakti yoga and the eight-limbed path. https://janetstoneyoga.com
