Rajas is the tendency or quality of passion or action.
In the light, this is compassionate, soul fed, heart driven desire, often accompanied with a vision for something bigger than oneself.
In the shadows, it’s egotistical, narcissistic, selfish, and greedy.
I used to ask “why me?” a lot. I figured that out. I chose this life for the richness of both beauty and contrast. The turned to “why am I here?” The answer to that is simple to, to grow and to serve a purpose through my unique expression of love. I find the question has once again evolved to “why now?”
As I watch the polarization of my town, our country, and even within me, I keep wondering, what’s really going on? Tolerance is decreasing drastically, both on a microcosm and macrocosm level. The decades of complacency with our land, communities, integrity, accountability and responsibility has steered us right here, right now.
A yoga teacher I admire greatly said in an interview that yoga does not make our problems go away. She’s right. Yoga helps us breathe and through the breath, we begin to feel again. Then we begin to explore the deeper questions. As yoga guides us into the deeper wisdom of principles such as nonviolence, truth, oneness, the question, “Am I a part of the problem or solution?” drives us to go beyond ourselves. I think yoga comes in from the outside and pulls the inside to the outside and repeats to take us into and through each layer of limiting thoughts and beliefs that helped us survive through the disconnection from our souls.
Really, if I can stand firmly grounded with my own shit, I can hold space for you to get the footing to do the same. And at some point, the tables just might be turned. Okay, who am I kidding? They likely will. I take to the mat not to be more flexible or strong or balanced on the mat or in my body, although those are excellent benefits. I step on it to live with more flexibility, strength, and balance for those in my life who count on that to make it through their own shit and hopefully find the grace of strength, balance, and flexibility. Because I know when they do, they’ll pay it forward.
We have to find the rajas of soul right now. We take a cue from yoga and ask, what’s not working for me right now? Where is there some give or bend? Where do I stand strong? What does balance look like, not only for me, but for my family, community, and planet? And what am I ready to let go of? (could we start with the need to be right or perfect?) The cycle of life includes birth and death. That holds true for thoughts, actions, dreams, relationships, values, beliefs. Not just life.
These aren’t easy questions, especially when we create stories around the consequences of choosing differently than at present. These are often questions that we can only get so far before hitting resistance. If you need some help exploring, let’s talk. Use the comment form at the bottom of the site to reach out. Let’s connect and process through so we can all experience the ripples of evolution.