The Push-Off

We’ve all heard the saying that “The darkness defines the Light”. Like, we need to have sadness so we appreciate joy. I always hated that. I saw it as just the same old story, “the glass is half full” aka merely avoiding the truth that life can suck. What the hell? Who drank my freaking juice?! Why do I only get half? It took me a while, 15/20 years perhaps 🙂 to realize the deeper Truth in this lesson.

I like to think of yin and yang, light and darkness, positive and negative, not as opponents but as allies, interdependent, one unable to exist without the other. Aikido is a form of spiritual martial arts that uses the premise of turning the energy back upon itself and the concept allows me navigate my judgment of a life that is good or bad, satisfying or scary, fulfilling and meaningful or empty. I’ve grown to realize that not only can I use my fear to push me towards security but the depth of the darkness creates an equal catalyst for light.

The biggest obstacles in our lives are the ones that give us the greatest strength. The very “stories” that haunt us as children turn into our inner demons until we release them into the Light where they become our purpose in life. The darkness is where the keys to our prisons are hidden so don’t avoid them. Don’t label them as “bad” and try to wish them away because they are there FOR you. They are there to serve you on your path to inner peace and freedom.

Inside Out

When I first started observing the ways of the mind, I realized that I had learned to mistrust my intuition. I had learned that my emotions were unstable (go figure emotions were always, as is their nature, in motion) and so I tended to over-analyze EVERY thing even though experience proved that my mind alone didn’t have the answers. I discovered that I would think and Think and THINK “it” to death and then still make spur-of-the moment decisions based on how I felt at the time. It didn’t require much thought to see that this was illogical, irrational. I decided to experiment with making decisions based on how I felt but I found out all too quickly that this approach suffered the same flaws. I could feel it, Feel it, FEEL IT but this too was incomplete and failed to bring me to the answers I was seeking.

Then, when I was guided to the teachings of the native American medicine wheel, I found the approach that worked for me. I was already familiar with the concepts of the four elements, the four worlds, the four bodies and the four directions but the wheel revealed to me how to honor all aspects of my mind when making decisions about my life. I learned to first tap into my feelings about a given situation before moving into my reasoning mind to solve the problem. I found that if I could “jump” back and forth from what I thought about my feelings to what I felt about my thoughts, I had a much more complete understanding of what I truly wanted and the actions required to get me where I wanted to go. It’s important that we practice this integration our hearts AND our minds instead of pitting them against one another because peace can only come from the inside out.

What Does Meta Mean Anyway?

META is a Greek word that means” beyond; after; adjacent; self. It really means putting fundamental information aside, much like the meta section of this blog at which no one looks. I use the term META because I think it’s important when we are attempting to take a very big concept, like health & fitness,  and make it simple.