In today’s guest blog, Sama Morningstar shares her quiet yet profound wisdom garnered from over 20 years of learning and teaching. She offers a gorgeous perspective on suffering, and the natural role it plays it our life cycle, as we play, grow, and TRANSFORM. “There is always an exhale at the end of the inhale.” ~Sama Morningstar
P.S. There’s still a few days left to sign up for the free challenge I’m hosting on the theme of Spiritual Bypassing. So far over 60 guys and gals from around the world are coming together for the journey, and I’m so excited! Hope to see you there.
It is how we are designed and for good reason. Pain lets us know what breaks us down and diminishes life. Pleasure lets us know what augments life. It is clear how the impulses of aversion to pain and attraction to pleasure serve us in simple physical circumstances like touching something hot or smelling good food. Somehow, however, things seem more complex when we look at the realms of psyche and spirit.
With our large brains we have conjured up all manner of emotionally painful and spiritually crippling circumstances. We are born into any given situation to find a treasure trove of blessings and curses, joys and pains. We begin to learn a wickedly complex dance of coping behaviors, tricks, and spells, playing in all realms available to us.
As babies and young children our bodies, psyches, and spirits are fluid and malleable. The guidance and training we get is incomplete and limited at best. We fill in the blanks and respond to atrocity with the best we can come up with in our shocked innocence.
Some of what we learned works great for certain purposes. Much of what we came up with leaves us perpetually dissatisfied and mystified. Many of us suffer terribly and can’t seem to find a way free of it though we cast about desperately. Some find a set of spiritual growth and self help practices they think will eventually solve all of their problems. Some continue learning and exploring new ways of being.
One of the sources of great suffering that I have witnessed in my 20 years as a spiritual practitioner, body worker, and teacher is the notion that there is some way of being, something we need to learn or do that is different than what we are doing and how we are being right now. I ask my clients and students if they have a yoga practice and most of them say they should do more than they do. Then when I ask them if they sometimes roll around on the floor and breath and feel themselves, many who didn’t think they had a practice suddenly discover that they do. And many realize they are doing more than they thought.
So the question arises for me, what is this feeling of lack, inadequacy, if only I would (fill in the blank) then I would be happy, have the perfect body, feel good all the time, arranging the different aspects of our lives in just the right way, enough money, smooth out those relationships, this constant urge to make things different and better than they are.
And then it occurs to me, this is the simple essence of life, growth, breath.
And then a new breath starts. There is a desire for the new breath embedded in the one that came before. That can feel like a dissatisfaction with the current breath.
So this suffering we are all experiencing in one way or another is simply the driving force behind all of life, creative life force that requires everything that currently exists to reach its limits, die, and transform into new life. We are given this lesson again and again in the cycles of nature, the processes of our bodies, the phases of our lives and relationships.
Even the human and animal impulses that I try to spiritually practice myself out of are serving to carry me down the river into the great ocean that refuses no one. This deep knowing that all is well keeps rising up to meet each problem that I want to fight with.
When I was asked to write this article, my initial response was my typical confident yes. I tend to jump into things with both feet, aware of the dangers but confident I will find my way. Part of this tendency is actual faith and trust. The other part of this is fear of missing out and a feeling of scarcity that has me gobbling at any new opportunity that presents itself. I choose to focus on the trust part and allowing that trust to transmute the energy of the fear into a supportive energy. It is all going in the same direction. And the fear helps me pay attention. Like in rock climbing.
So I jump in.
Sama Morningstar is a lifelong holistic health practitioner, singer, dancer, poet, and artist. She loves to support people on their journey of self improvement and spiritual growth. She does this primarily by sharing what helps her in her own process and encouraging others to find their own unique way with the tools and impulses available to them as well as through the delightful exploration of learning new things. Her website is full of a variety of Sama flavored holistic healing offerings like Sonic Embodiment, Mantra Dance, Herbal Delights, Luna Wave Wisdom Courses, Crystal Medicine, and Toning Yoga. Check it out here: www.samamorningstar.com Subscribe to her site on any page and receive her free newsletter that always has a free gift in it. You can also follow her on Facebook.