Accepting what is
On New Year’s Eve, I did a beautiful breath work ceremony with a few friends (outdoors and covid-protocol’d of course) and as I was breathing in and out through my mouth, my body started feeling resistance. My hands turned into those claws where you can’t move them and they felt like pins and needles and my lips were starting to tingle. The resistance my body was feeling was challenging and then as I was breathing and reckoning with why my body was resisting, it suddenly hit me: my resistance was coming from a place of protection of my pure innocent soul and I needed to accept the resistance fully.
By resisting my resistance and not accepting it, I wasn’t choosing my soul fully in the moment.
I then immediately moved to accepting my resistance and thanking it for protecting my sweet soul and then of course the resistance disappeared! My claw-like tingly hands released and I was free and truly surrendered.
Surrendering to me now does NOT mean “melting into the earth and becoming one with the universe” but fully accepting what is present, moment to moment, without judgement.
By accepting myself and what is present in my body fully no matter what and by not being mad at myself for “not letting go” or “not surrendering”, and instead accepting myself fully, resistance and all, I then was able to feel the full release.
Moment to moment self-acceptance and self-listening is the most important practice for us to do. When we mess up or get upset and don’t practice self-acceptance even after the upset, the bad feeling can prolong.
When we can practice self-acceptance (and self-forgiveness too) in every moment, clunky or otherwise, we can move forward and go at it differently with more love and generosity.
I challenge us all to find a way to accept what is in us fully, moment to moment, with love and compassion in 2021 so we can meet others with moment to moment love and compassion too. Shall we?