Light Seekers (a midsummer blog)

So here we are, it’s Summertime (in the Northern Hemisphere) The days are longer, sleep doesn’t come easy even if we’re exhausted & much like how the plants ‘know’ to travel high & fast at this time, a similar inexorable force is at work driving us to seek the light! With any kind of stimulation, be it from an external/internal source there comes a tendency to self-avoid in infinite & creative ways! This phenomenon does not mean that we are unenlightened, inferior or undisciplined, it is a complex & intrinsic ingredient of being Human. Our Hunter/Gatherer relatives knew it, the Ancestral Yogis knew it, the Shamans knew it and on & on! The impulses which inspire us to abandon ourselves are woven into our survival mechanisms….To further explain this I’ll use the example of trauma, we’ve all either had it or are going through it so the nature of its universality makes it the logical choice. During and/or after a loss, a shock, an attack, an accident or abuse, the brain steps in as the noble rescuer & depending on the personality, chemistry & background of the individual, any number of subsequent trauma responses can ensue & embed. The most common is that we shut off the pain, physical, emotional, psychological …..it’s all pain and if the incident repeats itself or if a different kind of disaster happens the brain will reinforce the numbness as a protective measure. The flight from pain, although it can lead to a cocktail of suppressed & unprocessed inner demons actually comes from love….it’s misguided & immature love but love nonetheless. This primitive attempt at self-love & protection which we locked into as children can cause problems in our adulthood but in fairness it facilitated our ability to survive, so it’s not too shabby but it needs upgrading as we grow! When we look at ourselves & our disfunction & wonder why we overreact, underreact or react in a way which utterly misrepresents us, these are the hauntings of our ancient coping mechanisms. They have gotten us this far but perhaps not in as healthy or fulfilling a way as we’d like, this modus operandum is akin to going hiking up the Alps in flip flops …..you can still do it to a certain extent but you will most certainly be injured, damaged & definitely not happy! So our Yoga affords us the ability to recognise that we need to update our coping mechanisms. We come to our Practice consciously so as to learn how to decommission that which is archaic & start crafting a more modern type of self preservation for the remainder of the journey…(a spriritual version of hiking boots!!!) Even in the midst of summer with all the delights, distractions & excuses to ignore our depth, we pledge to come to our mats, to stop running from ourselves & to perhaps seek the light inside!