Buddha taught of eight worldly winds that life deals us:
Pleasure and pain
Praise and blame
Fame and disrepute
Gain and loss.
As you can see these are pairs of opposites: one we are attracted to, the other repulsed by. Our human nature drives us towards doing anything to feel those feelings we want to feel and equally doing anything to avoid the ones we don’t. So much so that we can actually stop ourselves from feeling good for fear of the consequences if it doesn’t work out.
The teaching to remember though is everything is changing; just like as I look out my window as I am writing this and see the strong winds blowing the leaves off the trees and a rainbow amongst the dark skies to show there is sun shining too.
Life has been full of these 8 Worldly Winds recently, since last writing I have;
Run some amazingly successful Yin Yoga teacher trainings for which the feedback for has blown my mind. I love running these trainings and sharing all I have learned.
A few days after the glow of running one of these trainings, I had thousands of pounds stolen from me via a horrific phone/online scam. Which bought me down with a bump.
I had a fun time running retreats in the Alps this summer and discovered a love for hiking. At the same time I had to go see an emergency eye doctor in France for fear of retina detachment!
We are currently going through buying our first home, which is full of excitement then panic of detailed surveys and reports to read of what may be wrong with it!
Concern over a family member and close friend who have been going through an unexpected period of sickness.
The ups and downs of this crazy journey we call life.
It can be easy to get absorbed in either the “pleasure” or “pain” of it all, caught up in the dramas and allow them to be all consuming. Which all takes us away from our centre.
Our centre, that place within you can trust. That is always still. Always peaceful. Always unconditionally loving. For me this is the Divine within me, who I am part of. You’ll have your own belief of what this sacred space is.
Through it all I have kept up my communion with prayer and meditation to help me remember what is really the truth amongst it all. That none of this external stuff really matters, the praise, the blame, the fame, the failure, what I have got and what I have lost.
Acceptance is so key in the changes of life. That it will all keep changing and we can’t control this. We just have to stay close to ourselves, give our selves the space to pause and allow our minds to think clearly.
The scam was a reminder, yet again, of the importance of taking a pause. If I had stopped just for a few moments, taken a few deep breaths and noticed what my instinct was telling me I might not have been so horribly tricked.
I really find it helps so much to get outdoors and walk in nature to get perspective on things and remind yourself that life is going on what ever is happening. And of course Yin Yoga, or meditation, the opportunity to slow down midst it all and connect with yourself.
So to conclude, what ever you are going through good or bad just remember life is always evolving, this too shall pass. So enjoy the good times, but don’t take them for granted, and trust the horrible times will eventually change and you will be stronger after. This all helps us navigate life with a flexible mind, adapting and changing as each course twists and turns.
……and with another turn I am off to India for 5 weeks to run my Kerala retreat which was planned nearly 2 years ago and a more recently addition of a Yin TT in Goa, something completely unexpected that came out of one of the courses I ran in Brighton. You really never know what life is going to through at you :-)
I will write again in the New Year, hopefully from my new home in Worthing but you just never know if a new house sale will go through so we will see! Keeping open to all that flows. Have a peaceful and love filled Christmas period.
Namaste xx
PS I have not been writing so much on here recently as I have started doing short videos on Instagram so if you would like to check them out please see louiseatcreate over there.
