Be And Become

Be Or AND Become

Hello Starshine, On my personal social media pages, I shared this idea that you cannot correct and create at the same time. The flow stops when you focus on your mistakes. This is not to say that you shouldn’t go back and adjust or fix, but you have pick your moments, your battles, you have to decide your intention. Damn, there it is again, isn’t it?! That word that I start almost every Yoga class with. What's your intention, because intention is everything? This subject came to light when I was talking to a friend about writing and the struggle with trying to get it right, which stalled the thought process of what I actually intended to write. Like a damn stopping the flow of water. He said that you cannot write and edit at the same time. I, being the deep thinker I am, of course took this to mean so much more than a phrase only applicable to writing. The discussion then turned towards the concept that you cannot correct and create at the same time. Try it. Write about your thoughts and/or feelings without fixing as you're writing. Forget the red marks that pop up when you make a mistake and just be in the flow. Read it, then go back and edit. One version might feel rawer, realer and yes, indeed messier. One might have the same feel, just a little more cleaned up, one that you might be more comfortable sharing with the external world. Neither any less “you” than the other. Both authentic, just slightly different versions. So how do we navigate this? Do we decide to either correct or create, to be or become, to write or edit? No, not entirely. What about embracing the idea of “And” instead. You get to decide when you lean into one part of you AND when you lean into another. What is your intention in this moment, on this day. Because, no matter how hard we try to stop it, the world will keep turning. Our lives will keep evolving, whether we want them to or not. You get to decide which direction you want your life to grow towards, . Sometimes this means you will hussle, work, chase; feel confident, brave, powerful, full of light; be in the flow of life, able to create; to grow, evolve, cultivate wellness habits. (Wellness) AND sometimes you will back off, rest, stay; feel humble, weak, fragile, full of darkness; be still instead of flowing with life, reflective and ready to edit or correct mistakes; to stop, settle, apply all the wellness habits you've cultivated. (Stillness) Both are important phases of living this one miraculous life. Like an arrow, one that's sometimes being launched and one that's sometimes taking aim. Here’s your "hippie" for the day; an arrow can only be launched forward after it’s pulled back. Ready for more ? There’s still another option. You can also just be. Just breathe. Accept what’s arising day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath. This is the epitome of mindfulness. (Awareness) The decision is entirely yours. These are the choices you either activity or passively make daily. You set your intentions. One is not good and one is not bad. They are simply different petals on the same flower, feathers on the same bird, beats of the same heart, breaths from the same lungs. This is why it’s so essential that we embrace the seasons, the lunar cycles, what’s happening in nature and the environment all around us. The outer world doesn't choose one or the other, whether to hold on or let go, to correct or create, to be or become. The world embraces all of it, in its own time, at its own pace. What’s happening in your inner world. What’s your intention for your world? Where are you aiming? Is inner meeting outer? Like Mark Nepo says, "You must meet your outer world with your inner world or existence will crush you." Embrace all of it. Accept all of it. AND know the choice is always yours to make, even when it feels like it’s not. There is a deep center in the world that doesn’t spin, doesn’t shift like the platelets around it. Likewise, there’s a deep center within yourself. Your true authentic self. Let that version have a voice. Let your dreams, fears, accomplishments AND mistakes all have a voice. But don’t let them have a vote. Always let your truest self have the deciding vote. That’s what I’m offering. A sage (funny, I meant to type “safe” but it autocorrected to sage… happy accident;) space to connect with your most authentic self. In a world that asks you to keep it all together, your mat is your safe space to let it all fall apart, to shatter, to shed what's not authentically you and to discover what is. And I'm here to help guide you towards that center, that place of inner peace. Either through Yoga, Meditation, Energywork or other Wellness Modalities, I'm here to encourage you to embrace the whole perfectly imperfect being that you are. I'm here to be your Well-Being Guide™, your guide towards being well. So why do I tend to focus more on the deep, dark, scary, messy parts of you? It’s not because I don’t want you to embrace your perfection, your successes, your light. In fact, I end every class with some version of “Stay in the light, Yogi.” It’s because that part of you has rarely been shamed. The easy to get along with parts have always been celebrated. They haven't been forced to hide or hunted down. Your imperfection has. Your humanness has. Your messiness has. The parts that are deeper, heavier, a little harder to get along with. Your failures, your mistakes, your "less than's", your "not enoughs" have been thrown in your face over and over again. I want to offer a perspective that states that those parts of you deserve to be just as celebrated because THAT is where the growth happens, the healing happens, where the nourishment exists. That is the pullback that launches you forward. Both should be celebrated but unfortunately both are not. Let’s change that. Let's embrace our light, stay in our light AND not be afraid of our dark, to touch down, dive deep into the ground, into our muck. (Sidenote; every time I think of the phrase "touch down" I don't think about football. I think about the show How I Met Your Mother when Ted was asking Robin to try to give their relationship another chance. He says, "It's like you're floating out in space. Touch the ground, Robin. Live in the world, make a mistake. Make this mistake!" Mistake are just lessons to learn. And the only way to learn the outcome of the lesson, is to make the mistake.) Like any movement, this one just wants a seat at the table. And like, with any movement, there’s a fear that that means this seat has to be taken away from someone else, but that’s just not true. Instead, let's ask everyone (every part of ourselves) to squeeze together a little tighter AND pull up another seat. Stillness, Awareness, Wellness, (Yes, I have been very INTENTIONAL in these words that I often use to sign off. Yes, intention is everything.) Nicole Starr Bacon