Waking Up…Part II

The answer is: You keep walking. (Read Part 1) But you stop looking down at your feet, and start looking around because…

The world is speaking to you. Through every single one of your senses, there is guidance being offered that reveals your path to you.

I’ve started to realize that we’re living in a sort of endless treasure hunt. The life we’ve already lived has been weaving together hints and clues that reveal where we’re longing to go. And it is continuous, endless. In talking with a friend and co-mindfulness teacher, we debated the possibility of training to become therapists. Should we, shouldn’t we? Would it be the platform that we could both support ourselves to do the awakening work that we both so deeply felt called to? And then I saw it:

The transformational moments we experience in our lives offer encouragement to plunge deeper into the outfits worn by those experiences.

What the hell does that mean, you ask? So, for my friend, she had experienced loads of awakening and transformational experiences through the teachings and practices of Zen Buddhism and other mindfulness modalities. Therapy hadn’t much benefited her, in all actuality. Whereas for me, therapy – especially somatic therapy – had been a game changer, along with mindfulness. So while I felt a personal devotion to the therapeutic practices I’d been exposed to, even to the point that being able to offer them to others held resonance, she hadn’t quite experienced that same benefit. Realizing this, we saw how the teachings and practices that we’ve benefited from along each of our paths, led the way to what we wanted to offer. Her life was telling her that continuing to train in, practice, and offer the teachings of Zen, would keep leading her on the path of joy and transformation. And for me, continuing to experience and train in therapeutic approaches, interweaving mindfulness, would lead me deeper into the path of joy and transformation. Said more broadly:

Follow the joy in your life and it will lead you to more joy. Share the joy, offer the joy, and your path will continue to lead you.

Now, the next big question is: How do we decide what to pay attention to on our paths? How do we feel into what is calling us, what will lead to joy, and what won’t?

Love,
Gavrila Nikhila

Artist Credit: Lapo Elkann