Shar(e)on Lightly Yoga

I used to think that when I asked for healing from my emotional pain, that I was going to “achieve” that by fixing myself and everything that was ultimately wrong with me.

With the energy of one year ending and another beginning, I taught my yoga class the other day on this idea or process on how welcoming or inviting in something new, is also an ending of something else. There is a sacred connection in the process of letting go and of welcoming in something new.

These past few weeks have been very up and down for me. I have come face-to-face with my crumbling confidence as well as grief over where and how things have landed for me thus far. Not that it’s bad, but sadness is present nonetheless. And within all of this, I had a moment that brought me full circle. I was broken down and in tears when I felt this sense of light take hold deep in my bones - grief is the portal to every major transformation. And I was clearly being asked to let the transformation take place. I will honestly say that I am still within that process and the pain that we can experience within transformations can feel overwhelming at times.

This time of year, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, there is a lot of talk about gratitude and feeling grateful. Cultivating gratitude within ourselves and our lives is a potent healer in times of loss and grief. However, I want to speak to something that may not be often shared. When we experience a great loss in our lives, there is a time when we cannot feel gratitude without feeling the grief. They feel tied together. Bonded by some unknown force.