I’ve just come out of a 21 day retreat in the forested foothills of Southern India exploring the nature of the heart and mind with my beloved teacher and 30 new friends who came to gather from across the planet.In the divine embrace of Mother Nature, away from all distractions and communication from the outside world, my heart is bursting with gratitude for the incredible 3 weeks that was and for the teachings shared and received.
While I was away I wrote a little about some of the teachings that landed softly in my heart. With the intention to gently remind myself to stay alert, awake and enjoy the precious gift that is this human birth, I hope that these sharing’s may bring you some joy too. SIMPLE TRUTH: LOVE TRUMPS FEAR.
Before I left for the adventure, a friend had given me Marianne Williamson’s book – A Return to Love in which she beautifully shares: “The spiritual journey is the relinquishment or unleashing of fear and acceptance of love that back into our hearts… It’s not our job to seek for this love, but to seek all the barriers we hold against its coming”. One evening early on in the retreat after coming out of 3 days of silence, someone mentioned how it seemed that life often gets worse when we begin to work deeply on ourselves. We both had a laugh because it was a thought I had also become familiar with over the past few years.As it was for many, 2016 was a big year feeling the sticky scramble from one challenge to the next.
Off the back of what had been one of the most challenging periods of time personally, with unforeseen changes and hurdles on almost every level of previous security; family, relationships, health, career – we joked about how we’ve both had the grace to find ourselves, wandering around the Indian wilderness, peeling back the layers of what had delicately been stored in the heart and mind. That same day a story had been shared about how another friend had arrived on retreat having recently been fired his job, his partner had left and when he was to return home he had nowhere to live. To this our teacher delightfully responded; “how fantastic! Imagine of all of the possibilities which you have absolutely no idea about!”
It was the first of many sweetly delivered but powerful simple truths to hit home: No matter what happens, in any given moment, whatever external situation we may find ourselves in, if we hold on to love as our centre – particularly in times of challenge or hurt we will be protected from the chaos and confusion that fear brings.In a relatively short amount of time, a lot of internal stirring can happen with many juicy stories popping up when we take time out to sit quietly with ourselves. Every day, in long sessions of sitting for meditation and pranayama I noticed that many of the stories that kept arising in my mind seemed to share a common theme; underlying elements of fear. Whether the fear had been expressed in these stories as self doubt, desire, not wanting to let go, or a fear of judgement or unknowing – In many areas of my life where I’d previously found myself feeling stuck or gripped by.
