Courage: Sharing growth, love and creativity

A rolling stone gathers no moss. 

This image came from a reading. It was a heart with moss growing on the bottom but at the top butterflies were flying out. To me this image represents transformation. Growth. Love. And what happens when we share our growth instead of keeping it to ourselves.

This image came to me this week, and it seems to be in line with the message from last week, don't hide. As an artist or a creative person, I never understood why people would create anything and then just keep it to themselves. Even if it wasn't perfect and yes, I did/ do you have a perfectionism complex which I keep attempting to shed...if you tech-savvy folk haven't already noticed. But the point is, well there are several points. The joy of growth or the joy of the journey is so much more important than the destination. As well as the joy that comes through creation, growth, through love is meant to be shared and expressed.  

"the first law of thermodynamics, states that the energy of a closed system must remain constant—it can neither increase nor decrease without interference from outside. The universe itself is a closed system, so the total amount of energy in existence has always been the same. The forms that energy takes, however, are constantly changing."-Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American's senior editor covering space and physics. 

In lament terms, energy cannot be created or destroyed. It is always in motion. In order to flow, energy has to have an entry point and an exit point. If it doesn't it just ruminates, it doesn't go away. So when we are gifted the energy of creation, growth, love, joy, and art, and we don't share it, the energy starts to morph and change into something else. It doesn't go away it just transmutes. 

It isn't just enough to give you need to be able to receive as well. And if you receive growth, love, joy, inspiration, and creativity, and you don't send it back out to others and keep the buoyancy of that energy continuous, it loses its life. The energy becomes dull and the vibration shifts. 

I have never been able to take a compliment. I'm not sure why maybe because it made me feel embarrassed or highlighted my insecurities, possibly. But as I've aged, I'm not saying it's gotten easier because it has not but I'd have realized that in order to balance my energy and keep the flow of energy going through me and connection to the universe, when I receive a gift of positive energy, there must be an entry and exit point. A compliment is the best gift you can give and it costs nothing. When energy/ gifts are given, they need to be recognized and accepted. What you do with them is up to you. Do you give them away? Do you transmute them and share them? Do you hang onto them? What do you do when a gift is given to you?

I recently taught a group of high schoolers yoga. It was the most challenging experience of my life so far as teaching yoga. A beautiful challenge. It was about 160 of the best teachers I've ever had in my life. 

They did not want to do yoga. They did not care about me or what I had to say. They were too scared, or afraid to be vulnerable in my observation. And one day I realized I was not showing up the way I wanted to show up. I was frustrated by the situation and the lack of interest, and in my observation, the just absolute disregard for respect for themselves, me, authority, the class, what have you. 

So as a peace offering, I decided to bring them a gift for Valentine's Day. Pencils that I bought with my own money with motivational sayings on them. To me, yoga is always been about the mind. 

"Atha yoga nusassanam"

"Yogas citta vrtti nirodah"

-PYS 1.1, 1.2

Yoga is a discipline. A discipline of the mind and how to bring the mind to balance. I have noticed,  as the kids get older, from pre-k, grade school, and high school kids, yoga practice becomes less about the physical posture, and more about the power of the mind. So recognizing that I decided to give them these empowerments or motivational pencils. Everyone can use a pencil right? I gave these pencils to these kids, as a peace offering even if they didn't participate, even if they were disruptive, and if they were extraordinarily rude everyone got a pencil. Some of them refused the pencil and I remember saying "It's a gift take it! Receive it! What you do with it is up to you, but when someone gives you a gift, take it!" So the class went on and as we were cleaning up, another teacher, found a whole bunch of broken pencils and discarded pencils left on the ground. It broke my heart. It broke the other teacher's heart. She was very kind and said "I know it was very lovely for you to be so vulnerable with them and offer this peace offering and to give this to them and they just don't care," I said, "Well, they did what I told them to do they accepted it and they did what they wanted with it."

There's a saying "How you do one thing is how you do everything". When I first heard this I was like 'now that's not true." And then I started to notice how incredibly true it was. It does not mean that you can't change how you do everything. It just makes you notice. 

So what this image brings up to me today and wants me to offer to you is this. Do you recognize gifts when you receive them? What are some gifts you received today? What did you do with them? Do you allow yourself to be a vessel for energy to flow freely to and from do you equally give and receive? Do you focus on joy and the journey or do you focus on the product or the end result the destination? Do you allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to share your joy, your creativity, your art, and the things that are most precious to you? That vulnerability is the access point to deep connection. Allow the gift of energy to flow through you, transform and allow the butterflies to be released from your heart. Don't hold on to the things most precious in your heart and let them gather moss...share your energy. The world needs it. 

 

Big Buckets of Energetic Love, 

Meghan