Flexibility, Responsiveness and Adaptability Are Your Superpowers

Before we kick in, I have three seasonal Retreat experiences happening in the Northern Rivers of NSW in October, December and February, spaces are limited due to the intimacy and they’re filling up, so if you’re keen to be a part of this please reach out and more details can be found HERE.

I had a fantastic chat yesterday with my friend Tahl about our fears and the demands we feel around ‘being responsible’ people. Those moments in life when an opportunity comes your way that’s exciting, fun, filled with promise and then the ego structure stacks in with ‘well that’s not very responsible, you should be chained to your desk working, growing your business, making things happen’ etc etc. We all know iterations of this, when the mind starts playing games and takes us from a place of whim and awe into collapse. I’m obsessed with words so while we spoke I looked up the etymology of responsible. It come from the Latin root respondere (to answer or reply) and spondere (to give a pledge or make a solemn promise).

To be responsive to our lives, was to be responsible in a new light. To answer from our hearts that which comes our way is a far more graceful process than answering from the conditioned mind. To honor the pledge we have to our inner world, our joy, awe and wonder, also falls under to be responsible, and to be irresponsible can also mean to ignore this pledge.

So what is your pledge to yourself and your life?
How flexible and adaptable can you be?
What mind games will you put aside, in order to follow through on your pledge?

In a world that squeals conform to the status quo, combined with an interior world often filled with doubt about Self, this is often not easy work. But, the clarity is rewarding. The boundary pushing and the challenging, can be incredibly delightful unto itself. To really question, who is in the drivers seat right now, my ego or my higher self, brings answers.

Another question that brings about clarity is ‘if I choose this will I be in my integrity?’. Integrity cuts through a lot of the noise. Integrity is unique to each of us, and can be honored in many ways, and ultimately when aligned to it, the answers feel much clearer.

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Arran and I are in Melbourne for this month of August in the grey and the cold and I notice myself after a 20 hour drive, and 5 different beds in the first 9 nights a little discombobulated. We are seriously into eating good food, and so the trip has been constantly punctuated with delicious things, and also my body is saying now, baby slow it down! I was laughing with friends on a drive in the Mornington about that experience of half of myself wanting to be home, tending to our garden, quietly in my tea hut writing and teaching, being in my own bed, with our little old dog, with the birds and the breath of the trees, and the other half squealing lets be in a city! Let’s eat all the things! Let’s go to Tokyo! Let’s go to London! The heaving pull inwards and then outwards, yin and yang energy. And how often in one moment, ironically the pull is to the other.

Steadying oneself in an individual chapter can be challenging, and it happens in the micro and macro. I spoke to a coaching client the other day, who explained when they were at work they desperately wanted to be at home with their family, and when they were with their family, they were distracted and felt they needed to be at work. This is the duality of our existence at play, on a daily level. And it can rob us of our presence. Joan Tollifson says in her excellent book Nothing To Grasp, “So when there is confusion and seeking, when the mind is racing around it’s imaginary treadmill desperately looking for the correct answers and straining to “get it”, perhaps there will be a waking up from this habitual entrancement and a return to utter simplicity of traffic sounds, the smell of the rain, the hum of the refrigerator, the cool breeze on the skin, the blue sky reflected in a puddle. I’m not pointing to something mysterious and hard to get. I’m pointing to what is absolutely simple and obvious and unavoidable - the experiencing of a moment”. She’s not being evasive here, but is calling to a regaining of presence.

In this exact moment, there is nothing wrong. Even in the throes of anger and grief, when we pause, right here and right now, we will find nothing but pure awareness and presence underneath all of that noise. And that is a practice. The awareness of seeing the mind saying ‘not here! not now!’ and coming back to body, breath, sensation and experiencing yourself settle into what you really are - a tiny expression of the whole of the Universe. An experience that is meant to be enjoyed, in all its contrast and wonder.

With love,

Jac x

Some treats indulged in!

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OUR MEDITATION TEACHER TRAINING
If you would like to learn more about our upcoming Meditation Teacher Training that spans 3 months, please read more here. This training is global, online, and is with me personally. We have the group sessions, your homework and exercises and a what’s app group for extra support. It’s high contact, and engaging and community focussed.

This training is about your uniqueness, your leadership, your getting past ego structures and your inner critic and getting boots on the ground in the world sharing kindness, love, expansion and creativity. It’s about being of service. Whether you want to add a 5 minute meditation practice to a classroom, a boardroom or to your clients and patients, or lead group classes weekly, or create a library of practices online, we will cover it. Cadence, intention, rhythm, experience, safety. Meditation is a magnificent thing to share with the world, are you ready?