It's been a while since I visited here and a lot has happened in that time. I have moved house and unleashed my inner suburban girl. I can ride my bike to work ... on a sunny day when it's not too hot or cold and ... well, you get the idea. I have a housemate who is fun to spend time with and easy to get on with. I have had two beautiful holidays to sunny places with real ocean. I have finally found a yoga school I like. My degree is coming to an end and both my children are doing well at uni. Yes, life is good. So I have started therapy!Yikes! Sounds like the whole Woody Allen, New York thing has finally caught up with me. But suffice to say it's a very interesting, if rather expensive process, the details of which I am not going to bore you with.
What is more interesting are the links I am discovering between mind and body through yoga. They say it's normal to become more spiritually focussed as you get older, probably in an attempt to make sense of it all. But I suspect it has more to do with the fact our culture is so disconnected from any greater consciousness, we simply get exhausted as we age and need to reconnect to what we really are: universal energy.
Sure there are people in our society who "practice" religion. And while not wishing to cast aspersions on the many religious people who do real and valuable good in the world, the greatest task of most organised religion these days seems to be building barriers between people and fostering fear, rather than searching for universal consciousness and spiritual harmony.
I think this is primarily because we have lost sight of the god within, in the pursuit of the god without, the god we expect to give us the answers. If we are made in god's image then it is no quantum leap to see that we are god-like or part of that 'god' energy that 'created' this world in the first place. The answers come from within but we must be quiet to hear them. Quiet is not something we do all that well. Have you noticed how few people even listen to the world these days? I even find myself plugging into the iPod to cut out the swirl of sounds that are the soundtrack of the city.
But perhaps ironically we are on the right track. Perhaps by cutting ourselves off we are better able to reconnect. The other day I was able to meditate on the train to work by cutting out the noise with music. By the time I reached my desk I was calmer and happier and better able to connect with the people around me. This weekend, I went for a bike ride in the country. No headphones, just the sound of bellbirds and the wind and the crunch of gravel under the wheels. Yes, life is good.
