From Juliet

Note from Crystal:  I posted this as a comment on the blog, with the hopes that it would help us better see how to make comments.  In that effort, I was concerned that people might not see it at all (it's hard to see the comment button.  It will either say "X [number] comments" or it will say "No comment".  If you click on those words (tiny, at the bottom of each post), you can leave and view comments. 

So, without further ado, here's Juliet's offering:

As I reflect on the posts that Crystal has offered, I am filled with gratitude. The contemplation of the deeper meaning of ayurveda, the capacity to say 'yes' and the gifts of opening to the raw inner truth are at the heart of the work we are doing. It fills me with joy to witness Crystal (and all of you!) bringing the traditions of ayurveda into being.

Ayurveda translates as, "The Wisdom of Life". When I was first working with ayurveda I thought that to mean that Ayurveda was a known body of wisdom that contained answers to the questions of how to live in a whole and healthy way. Each unfolding year teaches me that while there is a body of wisdom, it's not something that can be "boxed". It is a living tradition and it lives within each one of us. As we experiement with ghee, as we breathe, as we work up some courage to look inside our own hearts, we are unfolding our own individual truth of the wisdom of life. So as much as this is learning the principles it is also learning to connect with, and trust, our own inner wisdom. This is what Ayurveda means to me.

As we start to feel the deeper authenticity and health that ayurveda brings, it causes us to make tough choices. Soemtime those choices are about cultivating a healthy sense of discipline, understanding that feeding our moment-by-moment whims, often driven by unconscious patterning, may not really serve us. We come to places where we need to say 'no'. When we shore up healthy boundaries with compassion, it strengthens our self-knowing and makes it easier to maintain some space for our various practices. It also reinforces our health; each time we make a choice to not overextend our schedule we are reaffirming how important our dear body is.

Learning to say 'yes' can be even more heartbreaking/opening. I feel like the places where we need to say 'no' create the space for our inner work, but a lot of the inner work is actually saying 'yes' to what it is we find when we're looking inward. To see the truth and accept it and to live it require that we surrender again and again. I can say from personal experience this is not always a graceful process! It means we must shed the constrictive skin that has been covering our inner brilliance. However awkward the process may be, touching in on it with authenticity can crack even the hardest wall around the heart and can, as Rumi states so beautifully, set the soul free.

Blessings on your juncture journey!

Juliet