There is an ancient Hawaiian founding story that each of us comes into the world with a bowl of light. A light that is our true essence of grace and love, but as we grow through experiences things happen. We get hurt and we judge our experience of life as bad, we become fearful or ashamed, resentful. Or perhaps we lie or steal, injure others through thoughts, actions or words.
With each negative behaviour we drop a stone into our bowl of light and it blocks some of the light. Slowly, with time our bowl fills up with stones and the light dims and goes out a little more each time until it is nearly gone.
However at any given moment you are given a choice to turn the bowl upside down and empty it and start again – from then on living with awareness, returning the light to our bowl – or as I’ve read also perhaps transforming our experiences of pain into memories that no longer affect us negatively and turning the stones into beautiful crystals.
It’s a powerful tale of the choices we can make each day to cleanse our awareness from stories we carry about ourselves and our lives that don’t serve us.
The choice we have every day to rinse it all out, through meditation, yoga, daily practises that empty out the negative and bring us back to our core, our essential self, full of potential, anchored in positive intention.
The ability we have to shake it all out and start afresh from a place of compassion. My primary tools to empty the bowl are Yoga and Ayurveda. I reach out to them regularly and each time walk out renewed and lighter, brighter in so many ways. If you have access to a class nearby I highly recommend you book. The power of community to heal is magnifying.
Ayurveda is a huge source of healing and growth for me and I share these tools in my course Boundless Energy if you feel inclined, take a look at the itinerary for the Spring class.
Anne Schouvey 