There’s a lot up in the air right now. I feel it in my life. I see it around me. Many people express that they feel untethered. There’s a lot of big decisions to make, and a very hard time actually making any decision. Next chapter on the table. Not knowing which direction to go. How do yoke yourself to wisdom?

Deep breaths. 

Breathe with me for a moment… Receive a slow, long, deep inhale… fill your lungs, expand your belly… all the way in. Pause. Hold your breath for a moment. And now very slowly let the breath flow out through your nostrils, slowly emptying your lungs, softly allowing your belly to rest back. Now do it again. And one more time. 

A lot is going on collectively. There’s a lot to worry about. The current administration in the US is a destructive, damaging, dangerous force, and so many of us are dealing with a lot of anxiety due to the horrific combination of their ill intentions and stupidity, narcissism and hatred, lies and bullying behavior. We have every reason to be concerned. For humanity. For the planet. And about basic survival needs. Especially because when you look at the rest of the world there isn’t much hope elsewhere. 

Take three more rounds of slow deep breaths again. Do it! Expand your belly with every inhale. Let it soften with each exhale. We need our nervous systems to be regulated as much as possible. We must not turn our eyes away from what’s going on, but we must take good care of ourselves as we sit with the struggles, the fears, and the worries. So breathe, my friend! Long, slow, deep inhales into the belly. Slow, soft, mindful exhales. 

When we’re dealing with so much, which I think so many of us are, it’s hard to stay grounded, it’s easy to get thrown in many directions, it’s difficult to respond from a centered place, and it’s natural to feel edgy. The collective shitstorm affects our personal struggles, making our decision making process that much more complicated, and each step that we take feels that much more heavy and important. Many of us have a hard time taking any action because of that. 

There’s a section in the Bhagavad Gita that I’ve been spending time contemplating, reflecting on, talking to a dear friend / client about in the last few weeks, and it keeps reminding me that I get to decide what to ground into. We get to choose and keep on choosing to yoke ourselves to the parts of ourselves that are more mature, to the wiser parts. We get to choose to continuously connect with and anchor into the more expansive parts of ourselves.

And we need to practice doing that. Again and again and again. Because it’s hard. 

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In the beginning of chapter eight in the Bhagavad Gita, Krśna tells Arjuna that in the moment of death, whatever one focuses on is where one goes. He encourages Arjuna to focus on him (Krśna), reminding us that he is the expanse of the universe, the creativity that keeps the cosmos becoming, the all inclusive, vast embrace of existence. 

You might find in many places Krśna being presented as the “Higher Self.” Personally, it’s not my favorite interpretation. I think it flattens and overly simplifies the text and the characters. Of course we have qualities that we want to enhance, and others that we need to keep in check. But essentially, referring to a part of ourselves as being higher than other parts is simplistic and problematic. 

We have many parts. We have shadowy qualities and luminous sides. All aspects of us have both shadow and light. Every gift comes with a price. Every issue has a hidden treasure. We are complex. We are interwoven with the world around us. We are who we are and we are also reflections of the time and the place and the people that we’re part of. And we’re also ever changing. 

When I feel into what the Krśna in me is, I see it as the part of me that can be with all the parts of me. It’s not better. It’s not worse. It’s not higher. It’s not absolute. Krśna is the part of me that includes all the parts, holds it all, and also creates more possibilities. It’s an expansive presence. Receptive. Generative. And hey, this is my interpretation, and you get to have yours. (Care to share? I’d love to hear from you!)

In that Gita moment, in chapter eight, when Krśna explores and explains the powerful choice one has in the moment of death, he invites us to explore who we want to be when transformation happens, when crisis hits, when we arrive at a tipping point. 

This is an invitation to ground ourselves into our greatness. Right now. When the personal and the planetary, the private and the collective, converge in the ferocious fire of crisis, and the instability of uncertainty. Right fucking now! Who do you want to be? What parts of you do you need to call on? What qualities do you want to cultivate? What tools do you forge in the fire? 

Something profound happens in those chapter eight Gita verses; After Krśna emphasises the importance of yoking oneself into engagement with him, focusing, stabilizing, and grounding oneself in the wise, expansive presence we each have and we all share, he continues to make his point, but the meter of the text changes. 

The change in meter can be looked at in many ways, and be explored from many angles. What strikes me here, is the call to break patterns, to do something in a different way. Since he’s talking about death, the text invites us here into the tipping point, to break out of old conversation and habits, and restructure ourselves in the fierce flames of change. 

There’s so much to explore here, so much more to think about, to contemplate, to reflect on. What I feel most inspired by right now is the invitation to choose, by the guidance to commit and focus on rooting into who we want to be, and by the reminder that we are capable of breaking patterns and singing our lives into being in new and different rhythms than we have before. 

And so as we may feel our lives becoming untethered, as we experience upheaval on personal and collective levels, as we face crisis and the struggles weigh us down, we can keep coming back to our breath, we can keep reminding ourselves to choose to forge the person that we want to be in the heat of the world’s intensity, we can keep yoking ourselves to wisdom, and transform who we are as we go. 

Thoughts? Feelings? I’d love to know where this hits you. Write a comment and share your wisdom. 

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If this message moved you in any way, please share it with your loved ones. You never know… this might be exactly what your friend needs today. And it would mean a lot to me, I’m so grateful!  

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So much love,

Hagar

PS – the image at the top is from the Bhagavad Gita translation by Douglas Brooks