Stop and smell the cookies

There is a word in Sanskrit, amrit, that loosely translated means nectar, the sweetness of life. In sanskrit when you put an A in front of a word, it negates the meaning. Mrt is the root for the word myrtur, which means death, so amrit means not death. Non-death may seem to imply that you live forever, but if you ask the vampires, eternal life in this body turns out to not be so great after all.  Really the sweet part of amrit is that you do not have a fear of death, and when there is that lack of fear, we can live very differently.  Because we live in one of the few safe places in the world, many of us don't fear that we are not going to make it home at the end of the day because of random violence. However we do fear many things related to certain deaths, such as the death of our personality and ego, the death of our possessions and status, the death of our youth and cognitive facilities, etc. Because we fear these things, we are held back from living fully. We are tip-toeing around actions that may cause the death of one of those fears (pick your favorite). 

There is a saying that goes if you want to live truly, you should learn to die daily. There is a lot to be said about that, but for now, as we get ready for the new year, let's focus on beginning the process of dying to death.  How? Well, OF COURSE our yoga practice helps with that. Through the study of scriptures, by knowing our bodies and nervous system better, and knowing our minds at least a little bit more, we not only see where we are stuck in the fear-of-loss mode, but it actually changes.  Sometimes we fear the insights, sometimes we fear the process, and sometimes the outcome- and so we might be unwilling to begin. But consider this- if you are already fearing death, which is after all is inevitable, and affecting how you are able to live, why not indulge in a fear of something that can have a different outcome? What might that look like?  It is different for everyone, but one thing is you won't suffer the burden of really controlling behavior, and that will make everyone else around you happy too. 

In the upcoming winter of 2019 we have many great classes and workshop that can help you to begin to see how the tethers of fear are robbing you of really living.  Meditation with David, Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita with me, an amazing workshop with Rafa  (stay tuned for the Shri Yantra workshop with Diego on the same day!).  All of these studies help you develop insights which allow you to begin to untangle your fear of living .

I know that if I was really tasting all of life fully it would be as satisfying, no-probably much more so, than a great chocolate chip cookie (one of my favs.). And this is a pretty amazing recipe, so I hope you will try it. Let the sweetness of the treat inspire you to find sweetness in all your actions that are born from freedom. When you taste life that way, it is hard to go back. Click here to see what's coming up in 2019. ​