February 2024: Alive + Well
Transforming qualities of the butterfly, words and meditation to support you today...always
are you alive, are you well, my dear
is every breath you take…full, light, clear
are your eyes filled with delights each day
can you feel, at your core, a flame
burning desire, gifted to each one of us
sets a fire to ignite, burn, transform
the habits that suck life dry
leaving in their place…rituals of passion, peace, grace
A Moth to a Flame & The Butterfly’s Transforming Gift
The word that has the most meaning for me in the month of February is ALIVE.
February is the month, 11 years ago, when I gave birth to my daughter…and since then I’ve never had the ability to feel so alive. Or, I’ve never been so aware of the feelings and sensations of being alive.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve never felt as tired or, at times, afraid…or maybe it’s from learning how to become self-aware, able to identify the feelings and sensations that surface in my body and mind…allowing them to bubble, surface, and fade. Knowing when to allow the transformation of thought, feeling, sensation to take place in order to live…alive and well.
Like a moth to a flame, I’ll always be attracted to the things that cause anxiety…that’s the way I’m hardwired. But with a cultivated and well-practiced sense of self-awareness, I’m able to enter states of allowing and releasing with the things that cause me to worry or be afraid.
The allowing, or acknowledging, and the releasing of anxiety or sadness-inducing things gives us the ability to live a full and beautiful life.
But to do so, and to do so well…I had to learn how to be silent and still in order to listen to what needs to stay and what I need to let go.
One such technique lies in one of the 10 guiding yogic principles…it’s called TAPAS.
Tapas…literally means “to burn” in Sanskrit.
When teaching these 10 guiding principles, I love to work with the image of the butterfly to represent our work with tapas.
Let’s explore life through the image and symbol of the butterfly below, but first…
An Offering
energized
i feel alive
i move and am
at one
at peace with myself
to dive into forward motion
to stand strong and courageous
i recognize i am a
warrior of peace
warrior of great energy
warrior of light
in this expansive universe
on being alive…prose, prompts, and a meditation
images of living alive, heat, transformation : : the butterfly
Four years ago I worked with the butterfly as a spirit guide. Whenever I had a burning anxiety I couldn’t fully extinguish, or I felt like I needed confirmation from God that I was pursuing the right course or on the right track, I’d pray to see a butterfly. When I needed to see the butterfly…there she was.
Is it difficult to not fan the flames of anxiety, or other negative emotions, feelings, and sensations?
YES! Yes it is extremely difficult to stop the fires that come with negative emotions, feelings, and sensations.
That’s when the principle of tapas steps in and offers to assist us in transforming the negative, old, or outdated into something beautiful, fresh, desired.
Once we know how to bring awareness to and release of the negative sensations, we have access to working with them in order to feel, to know…we are alive and can make the choice to be well.
Opposites of feeling and sensation are wonderful indicators of BEING ALIVE! And sometimes it’s the truly negative feelings and sensations that allow us to know, without a doubt…we are alive.
Are you freezing? Great! You’re alive!
Are you sweating? Super! You’re alive!
Are you terrified?! Wonderful! You’re alive!
Do you feel sadness in the core of your heart? Beautiful…You’re alive!
Opposites are also useful because they offer us a clear path for choosing to feel something different…to feel in the exact opposite way, if how we are feeling is uncomfortable or undesirable.
Missing you, Grandpa…an example of feeling deep sadness in order to feel alive
December 2021: Calls from my mom and sister came in to say, “If you want to see grandpa you’ll need to get down here right away.”
I wanted him to see my daughter once more, and I wanted to see and visit and laugh with him once more, before…
But I was always so afraid of hospitals and death, especially when I was younger, so the thought of “one more time” with grandpa in the hospital was so upsetting, scary.
Then an awareness of feeling and sensation came…If we go to see grandpa it’s going to hurt so much, it will be so sad…but in this discomfort I would know that I was truly alive.
It was a trip I could take, and we did. A wonderful gift to see him, one last time, and to feel…alive and well in his presence.
While my heart hurt badly and it was so difficult to say “goodbye,” I knew in the hurt, sadness, and pending departure, that I was alive…and from there, a connection to goodness, breath and body, and love was present and all we needed to move forward…in life and death.
A Practice
Gazing softly at the image of the chrysalis above…Tapping in to your heart center or mind’s eye…Ask & Listen…
What do you see? Colors, elements, creature, creation, life, change. Find the words to describe what you see…with your eyes, mind. Ask your heart and soul, as they may see something invisible to the naked eye in this image…something you intuit or feel.
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