A Challenge For Us All: To Allow
“Let your heart be cracked wide open!” “You are enough.”
Blah blah blah. Yup, I was so resistant to these phrases. I would roll my eyes silently to the back of my head. Please, why do I need to let my heart crack open when I think I am compassionate enough, loving enough, and available to my emotions enough? What does that even mean, to crack my heart open? And that whole ‘being enough’, please, I want to be MORE!
But then, I kept hearing it in my life. So many people around me would say it, TEDTalks would say it, friends would say it, yogis would say it, even a sign said it! What did it all really mean? And what do I need to do in order to feel it? Or make it happen? Or be it? To live it? How do I not worry about not being enough? And how can I allow my heart to crack open when sometimes that feels embarrassing? What does all of this mean/look like? And, why did all of this seem important?
Don’t worry my friend. You don’t NEED to do anything around all of this. But, I hope you keep reading! (Boom, even right now I think I need to get the perfect yogic text to support what I am writing about in order to show you something; but why? To prove my worth to write this blog, my worth as a yoga instructor, my own worth. No, I am enough. Let me just write from the place within myself.)
I could end the blog here, haha! But, I won’t. I can’t. See, when I allowed myself to feel, and, perhaps more important, show, that my heart had been cracked open and that I felt like I was enough, things shifted. Here is were I admit that I struggle BIG with always feeling like I am enough. Perhaps another blog to explore that, however, back to the initial subject at hand… Allowing One’s Self to be enough and to allow your heart to crack wide open.
What does this mean? We will all have our own various definitions for these. To allow our emotional body to experience the whole gamut of emotions; for me, this is heart cracking stuff. And to take it that gutsy step further, that vulnerable step further, and to allow yourself to set free those emotions, to show them, to move thru them, to express them, this is also heart cracking stuff. And, to realize, to know, to believe, that all of this is so worthy of your attention; and that you ARE worthy of these experiences. This is being enough. To know that we need do nothing more than to love ourselves just as we love one another. And that does mean loving it all, even the rough parts.
So how? Why? When? Where? To whom? For whom? Allow your Self to guide you! In the mean time, here are some things from my real life experiences that have helped me.
Do it for your Self. For your children, for family, for your teachers, your ancestors, or for whomever looks up to you. Take on this challenge I am suggesting at the end if this blog, so that we can all start a huge wave of revolutionary openings through which we can all experience and witness the binding threads of life that allow us to truly see each other to be like one another.
Allow your heart to crack open to these same people that you are doing it for; and, to whomever else just happens to be around when it cracks. This will inspire those around you to open too!
So do it anywhere, at any time.
Why? Because you will be moved when you open, and the wave will ripple.
And to the how; When you allow yourself to feel life’s heart beat. When you allow yourself to experience all emotions; the good, the awesome, the uncomfortable, the sad, the awful, and all in between. Being willing in doing so; be unafraid to be real, and to show it. Be honest. When things hurt, say so, and remember that a person who has just hurt you, has, most likely, known hurt themselves. So, be curious and hold the wonder of life within your mind and heart.
So, here is my challenge to YOU!
Let us, for one week, together, live from a place of BEING enough and ALLOWING our hearts to be cracked open. Will you join me? Perhaps this week will turn into the rest of our lives.
