A Bend in the Road (April 2007)

Recently I had a minor but very painful neck injury. I immediately went to my friends Takako and Hisato for acupuncture and chiropractic treatment, laden with heavy doses of love, nurtuing and wisdom. I want to share with you, friends, some of the wonders that are emerging from this. There are actually so many that I hope to remember them all!

We all want to be "perfect' all of the time. It is so annoying when a physical disturbance comes along and throws a wrench in our well laid plans! The nerve (pardon the pun) of my body to derail me like this. I have so much to do right now!!!

Well, that's not the way my spirit saw it. Right away Hisato said to me: "Can you love yourself even though you are in pain? Even though you will not appear in great shape to the students?" This was interesting because in all the years of my teaching, I do not remember allowing the students in on how bad I felt at times. I sat in a chair and taught with ice on my neck, stiff like Frankenstein.

But then I heard from others that often students will not come to class because they are "down" and "don't want to contaminate the energy," or they feel ill and feel bad about it, etc. I realized that we have a dominant intention to be perfect, but we cannot reject ourselves all those times that we don't measure up to the ego's massive goals.

I also thought as I actually screamed in the night with the pain, "What about all the people who are always in pain?' Oh my God, what a sense of compassion I had in that moment. More and more we realize that we are one with ALL THAT IS and we want to heal ourselves in order for the whole to heal. Could it be that part of the divine plan was to allow me to be human, and get out of the clouds for a week, where I generally live?

I noticed that when I was pushing myself to work too hard, the pain got worse and it looked like the injury would stick around a lot longer. I said: "What in the world am I doing?," jumped on a plane and I write this from sunny Tucson, Arizona, where magically the pain drained out of me on the plane ride!!! So what does this say? DON'T BUCK THE CURRENT! FLOW DOWNSTREAM! LISTEN TO WHEN YOUR BODY FEELS GOOD AND WHEN YOUR BODY FEELS BAD, AND HELLO? FOLLOW THE SMOOTH FLOWING, GOOD FEELING DIRECTION!

Now out of pain, I think about the things that would upset me about other people and I'm like: "Who cares? I'm not in pain now and I'm so grateful!"

I think of the symbology of the neck and ask: "Are my heart and head in alignment?
Do I trust there is a greater plan for my life than the one I dreamed up?"
I love the Oprah Winfrey quote:
ALLOW GOD TO DREAM UP A DREAM FOR YOUR LIFE WHICH IS FAR GREATER THAN ANYTHING YOU COULD EVER DREAM UP FOR YOURSELF.

Friends, I could go on and on, but wanted to share all this with you if you are experiencing a less than ideal state. (And who isn't?) How much can you love yourself including it? We teach balance in Yoga and with balance comes peace, which is synonymous with a peaceful, healthy, balanced body. So let's all breathe and float downstream.

Affirm often:
I PLACE MY JOY AND HAPPINESS FIRST AND THE WHOLE WORLD IS BLESSED.

Sincerely, Joni

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