Lets Face It...

Today's Intention: Face what is coming up.

There are countless ways to avoid discomfort, pain, sadness, hurt, regret. We can access many methods and/or vices that aid us in the temporary, and ineffective, numbing of the unpleasantries.

When faced with something that triggers us, we might choose to be reactionary (a personal favorite), defensive or angry. We may intellectualize the whole ordeal, completely avoiding our emotional self. Some of us retreat, turning all of the focus inward in a highly critical way, while another way of responding is to look only outside of ourselves for a place to blame.

We throw ourselves into our career, a project, our social life. We eat, drink, smoke. We keep busy with our to-do lists (because we are SOOOOO important) and tasks and doing, doing, doing.

What if we just stopped? The very instant something is triggered inside of us, imagine a few moments of stillness? No words, no actions ... just the trigger itself, accompanied by the response bubbling up inside of us and our own steady breath.

The discipline of Yoga reminds us of svadyaya, or Self-Study. It is one of the principles which, when practiced, frees us from destructive patterns. Through this principle, we develop a high level of sensitivity to our patterns and tendencies. We begin to recognize when we are being reactionary, and we extend compassion toward ourselves as we begin to understand what it is that triggers us in the first place.

Today I will notice. Notice my craving to numb what is uncomfortable, to control when things aren't moving in the direction I want them to, to react before actually feeling whatever it is that is bubbling up for me. Today I will commit to pausing for the briefest of moments, just long enough to pay attention and tune in. When we are willing to experience them fully, emotions are great teachers.