What a crappy year 2021 was for me. All kinds of stuff kept happening that I couldn’t control. Divisiveness in the world wore me down. Emotional pain from a death in the family felt crushing. Losing my dog tore me apart. I questioned what I was doing wrong to cause all the tribulations. I asked my yoga teacher that, he responded, “Isn’t this just life?” I interpreted that to mean S**t happens.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s book The Art of Power encouraged me. He wrote everything is impermanent and interconnected. The divisiveness in our world left me feeling isolated, but we are all connected because we are human beings on planet Earth. Hanh wrote, “We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.”
When I'm struggling, I forget that everything changes and is connected. To get rid of my amnesia I have to be conscious of what's going on in me and around me. “Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.” Thich Nhat Hanh. I do have the power to transform things!
Energy is an interesting thing that connects us. Everything is made up of it. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It's the one constant in the universe. Like in the Star Wars Tale there's positive-light energy and negative-dark energy. I know I can connect with the energy of fear and hate or the energy of courage and love. Maya Angelo said, “If one has courage, nothing can dim the light that shines from within.”
In her book, A Return to Love, Maryanne Williamson wrote, “Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves, and in others, is the meaning in life." I can embrace the energy of love and remember that everything is impermanent and connected.
What I do does affect the world around me. Aristotle said, “The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” Since I don’t want to add to energy that is divisive or negative, I need to return to the calm place in my mind by breathing. I can let that positive energy out into the world. For me, that ultimately means returning to the energy of Love by letting everything else go. Sometimes, it's hard to love - then I return to being curious - I'm writing about this in my latest book!
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