To be courageous is
not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those
things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities
of those consequences.
~David Whyte,
Consolations
One of the vignettes on One World Stay at Home concert last Saturday
was of a 66 year old retired doctor who has chosen to leave retirment, put her scrubs back on
and return to work at the hospital treating Covid-19 patients. She felt deeply what was in her heart and has
made herself highly vulnerable to the consequences.
Courage is expressed in physical acts like those of all our
frontline essential works who put themselves at risk every day. It is also in the willingness to feel our
hearts deeply: pain, fear, grief, love.
To feel and then to act, even if that action is simply getting out of bed
and doing another day at home in lock down.
In Sanskrit the word for heart is Hrdaya. While this refers to
our beating physical hearts, it also refers to the heart of the world, the
essence and core of anything and all things. Yoga teaches us that when we allow
ourselves to rest back in our heart and all that we find therein, we ultimately
rest back in the heart of all things. This
is yoga off the mat, where we connect to all beings through our vulnerability
and willingness to feel.
Allowing ourselves to feel deeply is scary. I find it terrifying. That’s why I love this hand gesture: Abhaya
Hrdaya Mudra or Courageous Heart Gesture.
A mudra is a seal, a mark or a gesture, a calling forth of what we
aspire to. I don’t know about you, but I
need a lot of courage these days.
Join me at 12:15 pm today for a FREE meditation on
cultivating our courageous hearts and learn the mudra with me.
If you miss the meditation, here’s SiannaSherman demonstrating how to do it.
Love,
Chaya
