You are the lion!

Hi,

I haven’t written a blog for a goodly while now. Truth be told when the world fell apart I did too.
My studios closed down, my retreats cancelled, I was experiencing a lot of loss and uncertainty. My focus became about keeping my head above water rather than writing words of inspiration. Much like all of you I would imagine. Basically, I lost my mojo. My driving force dissipated and I took to resting in and watching Netflix in the bath (most often with ice-cream).

I can’t exactly explain what has awoken me from my hibernation. Perhaps the invitation of spring? or the softening of lockdown restrictions? I feel compelled to create again. It’s kinda nice. 

The blessing of this time has been exactly what I just spoke about. I didn’t see this chapter as negative or bad. But a reformulation of my whole being. A time to power down. To cry the hot healing tears needed to release fully, into a place of self-care and restoration. A place that I had resisted for so long, operating more to the tune of “I’m so busy and I gotta do…”

But I stopped and then I let go.

It was painful.

It was necessary. 

During lockdown I had a request from a student to turn one of my classes into a blog, so here it is.

I called this class, “You are the lion” and I told a story about a young lion cub who had lost his way and fell in with a group of donkeys. Not knowing any better he assumed, because he was surrounded by a mob of donkeys, that he too, was a indeed a donkey. So he began to do what donkeys do. He picked up the rocks and put them on his back and walked up the mountain with a “Eee-oar! Eee-oar!” In short, he became a beast of burden.

One day an older “king of the jungle” type lion walked by and noticed the lion cub behaving in this unusual way. Bemused, he approach the little cub and asked him why he was carrying rocks up the mountain like a donkey, when he wasn’t a donkey? But the cub was convinced that he knew who he was and said, “Of course I’m a donkey! Eee-oar! Eeeee-oooar!” (you know, to prove his point). But the older Lion just laughed and instructed the cub to come along with him so he could show the youngster his true Self. The young cub was reluctant to leave his duties and his “knowingness” about himself but eventually curiosity came over him and he followed the older lion away from the mountains and into the deep dark forest. 

Soon they came to a crystal clear river and the older lion instructed the cub to look into the water to see his reflection. The cub did this and saw that he wasn’t a donkey at all but a beautiful and powerful lion! He lifted his gaze to the older lion and roared a deep roar from the pit of his being. A huge and resonate roar of power and freedom! And the two of them ran through the forest, roaring and commanding, as only the kings of the jungle can.

THE END

And so it goes in the yogic teachings that we are the lion. Not the donkey. But we too can be lead astray.
We have all been taught, in one form or another, that we are far less free and empowered than what is actually true. We come in to this life and there’s a setup.. certain ways of being or achieving that we must live up to, in order to be a successful human. So whether we like or not, or feel aligned to it or not, we pop those proverbial rocks on our back and walk up the mountain. Sweating and swearing and often not at all happy or content! But still following the status quo, because we have been taught this is what we, as humans (donkeys), must do.
In a nut shell, we become the beasts of burden.

Depressed yet? 

But wait! There’s more to the story!
As we have just read, it’s the older lion that helps the donkey cub find his true purpose, to live a life of freedom and joy. Hooray!
So who is the lion in our lives? Who sets us straight? and shows us we are all wild and free? 

Truth be told the lion represents the great power of the universe, that hums within our being, that has been there all along. It says, “Hey kid, why are you carrying rocks?” But in the form of an internal prompting, a gut feeling, that says “There’s more to life than this”. “There’s more to you than this” And it’s usually that internal prompting that takes you to the practice of the yoga. It says.. “Go this way…follow that teacher”.

There, we  traverse into the deep dark forest of our own selves and find the crystal clear lake that reflects back to us our true and most powerful nature. Having glimpsed ourselves clearly we get down with the fact that we don’t have to carry the heavy load of expectation (that was never chosen by us anyway!?) and we can live the life that we truly want to live. Double hooray!

However, just like the donkey cub we can get a little stuck in our knowingness (ie: “I know I have to carry these rocks damn it! It’s my lot in life!)" and can feel a little protective of them when someone comes along and says we are living from a story that we never actually wrote for ourselves. This is precisely why in the practice of yoga we have to have an embodied experience of who we are beyond the rock carrying stories and ideas of self. Because it is not enough, and indeed very difficult, to just change our minds.

This is due to being up against a life time of programming and a world that says the programming is real and true. Our yoga practice is often intense and repetitive because we need to consistently come back to a state of presence in which the secrets to our true nature reside. Because the clear lake where we see ourselves, as we truly are, is accessed through moments of mental stillness. 

Lastly, we need to let go of what we think we know in order to have a different more intimate relationship with reality. The more I study yoga, and life, the more I realise I know extraordinarily little. But sitting in that place is a lot more illuminating and exciting and full of possibilities than my world of knowingness. I can not learn from what I already know. If I choose to stay there, I’m stuck. Doomed to repeat my life situations over and over. Picking up the rocks and popping them on my back and trudging up the mountain. 

So here’s some great news… You are not a donkey. You are not a beast of burden. You are not insignificant, small, not enough or incomplete. You are the Lion. You hum with the power of the universe. In essence you are free to roam this jungle we call life in a way that is unique to you. Does it take consistent practice and courage to do so? Absolutely.

Is it worth it? 100%. 

Many of you steeped in the practice will know this to be true because you would have had a glimpse of yourself moving in a way that is wild and free and completely unbound by your older, ingrained constructs. You would have been there, even for just a moment in time. And like anything the more you touch into that state of being the more it will become your basic reference point for your whole life. To live from a place that is unbound, joyful, empowered and free. Also known as, the fruits of practice. 

Yours in yoga,

Aimee xx