What is the promise of recovery, if not to become more solid, more okay, more peaceful inside no matter what?
Forgiveness is a topic that comes up constantly, especially for people who struggle with addiction.
The summer I was 18 I was driving down a country road with my mother. This was in the rural county where I grew up and all of the roads were country, the houses spread out over miles, hardly any of them in sight of a neighbor. Driving meant going past an endless stream of trees and fields and wildflowers. On this particular afternoon, my mother and I came upon a yard sale at a big house where a very old woman lived alone, her husband dead, her kids grown and gone.
No matter where you are in life at this moment, there is at least one thing that you and I have in common: We want to improve our lives and ourselves. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with us, but as human beings we’re born with a desire to continuously grow and improve. I believe it’s within all of us. Yet most people wake up each day and life pretty much stays the same.
I took a photo of the room I stayed in during my three-day Soul Shift retreat in California.
It was the first time I’d led a retreat, and in order to show up for it, I had to listen to the persistent voice of belief rather than the pesky voice of doubt.
I was preparing to vacate the room and catch my flight home when I thought: Did I leave anything behind?
Way back when my mom told me that she’d always be with me, it didn’t occur to me that the story I’d most long to tell would be about my love for her, my grief over her too-young death, my gratitude for her light in my life. I didn’t know that part of the way I’d make her present in her absence would be that I’d share her with others through my writing. That I’d make her alive in the hearts and minds of people she never met.
Many of us begin a yoga practice to improve our physical condition and relieve stress. Then the after-class euphoria becomes more and more noticeable, and we start to ask, “Why do I feel so good? What is happening within to generate this feeling of well-being?” Val Spies shares her thoughts on the chakra and kosha systems of the yogic …
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