Photo credit: Google Images

This article was originally posted on Rebelle Society.

Let’s talk about this.

What is the difference between taking inspired action and ’’getting shit done’’? What qualities accompany the act of making it happen? And what qualities are absent in this process of forcing it to work  as opposed to allowing it, receiving it, letting it flow through you?

I have always been a doer.

Rooted in my longing to be seen, to be respected, celebrated and loved, I have made things happen. A big part of what has been pushed into creation came out of my heart, an equally big part came from trying to fit the picture I had of myself . There were so many things I thought I needed to do or be to live a life worth living.

Now times are changing—could it be that thing…’’maturity’’ people talk about?

Everyone reading this will have done the same. Everyone. You too my friend. Could it be that you have also been trying to fit the part? Even getting the part? Or maybe forcing yourself to play the part and doing it surprisingly well?

But did it feel good?

So the day comes when the realization hits us, that this is not the way I want to live life, and we start to open, breathe, love more and shift towards a more inspired way of living.

And start asking ourselves questions like, do I want Drama or Dharma?

Sally Kempton defines Dharma like this:

‘’…then dharma has at least three meanings. Your dharma can be your personal life path, your calling. It can be a synonym for right action, the moral or ethical good in a situation. Or it can mean the spiritual path itself.”

If you look up ‘dharma’ in a Sanskrit/English dictionary you’ll find it translated as: religion, the path, natural law, righteousness, duty, truth, virtue and correct action. The word itself comes from a Sanskrit root (dhr, if you’re interested) that means to support or uphold, and to nourish.

“Dharma is so-called,” says the Mahabharata, “because of its capacity for sustaining the world.”

So one clue to discovering whether you’re following your dharma might be to ask yourself, whether you feel that the universe supports you in what you do, or whether your actions and way of life helps you feel connected to some sort of universal truth.

Most traditional teachers agree that dharma is connected to the underlying order of the universe. I would add that to follow your dharma is to align yourself with the most evolved level of your own consciousness. Swadharma is linked with the idea of “calling,” or vocation, so to follow your swadharma is to follow the thread of guidance that “calls” you to express your being in unique ways.

It’s rarely easy to know what it is we want to do with our lives. I have spent the last seven years trying to figure out what I enjoy and what my svadharma is.

Krishna says to Arjuna (lucky him who has someone to tell him what his svadharma is via the Bhagavad Gita):

“You are a warrior, your svadharma, your personal duty, is to fight. Therefore, stand up and do battle. Better your own dharma badly performed than the dharma of another done perfectly.”

Well…I’m not a warrior.

Most of you are not warriors either. We might have tried to use the strength of a warrior to fit into a life that does not suit us or ’’performing another’s dharma perfectly’’. But we all have a svadharma, something’ we love to do and share.

We have to allow ourselves to find it and then re-find it again and again as our life shifts and changes. Because the svadharma changes.

I am pondering these days how to allow life to happen to me, and not force life to happen ’’out of me’’. It has been a practice of sticking with the present moment. I still make plans of course, don’t get me wrong.

But I am trying to not force things to come to me, or to come from me. Not to block them from coming to me. Not to block them from coming from me. It’s not a matter of being passive, but a matter of not over-working every situation. Not a matter of squeezing the juice out of every moment but receiving the moment, but a matter of being guided gently from within.

The questions to myself.

Dear You—How do you navigate your own reality? Do you choose like you always have, picking up the same bits and pieces of fear, smallness or certain predetermined objects you think might make you happy well knowing that they don’t? Are you allowing life to happen as it wants to, and are you taking time to enjoy the variation and surprise that is given you every day in this life? Are you enjoying your life…?

Life is so varied! It’s so surprising! What inspires me, truly? What inspires you? Am I letting that inspiration guide me? Are you?

When you find yourself getting of track, dear, just relax and feel your way back home to mama dharma-shakti!

“Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.” 

—Henry Ford

It seems to me that the poison of a situation brings the gift of a situation. We don’t know what the gifts will be (and luckily we don’t always see where the poison will come from either). But each contraction has it’s own special promise of revelation.

Think it like this: each relationship offers you new tools, new understanding and insight into who you are. It gives you insight into the workings of the world and provides you with the experience needed to navigate. From each mistake, each success, every misunderstanding and every connection we have with each other, we learn. And we couldn’t have learned what we learned from any other situation.

We would have learned similar things, but not in exactly that way. So you see , every situation has the potential of unraveling deep truths and meaning to you. This is earth-shaking, breath-taking insight for me!

When someone has a differing opinion, talks or moves different to you. Their actions can only inspire deepening awareness in you. Because suddenly you know more. You have seen a new option even if you don’t agree with it.

It helps us let go of drama for sure!

Each contraction is a sundi, a holy point, of potential energy unraveling.

To know yourself you have to stay with yourself. The running has to stop if you want to see what the optional pathways might be. The restlessness needs to be met with sweetness and seeing days as ’’boring’’ will be left to those with nothing better to focus on.

Boring can be restorative. Integration time. Time to listen deeper. I usually just have to smile when I hear myself utter the words, ’’I’m bored’’.  I then think, “jeez, drama-queen – get over yourself girl and get up and do something if it’s such a boring day!”

It’s a matter of trust.

To take a moment to trust the caring voice speaking to us from the deep well of wisdom inside. Let that voice open the gates of creativity! Svadharma–to be your self! For me, the most Anja I can possibly be. And for you? Well I can’t be you and you can’t be me. So you be you—and I’ll be me.

Let’s let life happen out of us, happen to us, with us. Participating with attention and care. Everyday a possible day of living our own truth. We can take inspired action, wherever we are in this world, whatever is going on!

The ’’how-to’’?

Well, who am I to tell you? Baba Muktananda says, “Your real svadharma is to know the truth of your inner being.”

And this is what I tell myself:

Feel

Align with it

Then relax

…

Wait for inspiration

Take inspired action!

 

 

 

 

~

Editor: Tanya Markul

Like elephant yoga on Facebook.