Root to Rise
By Cara Chang Mutert
People sometimes ask me, “How do you stay calm?” Honestly, I don’t.
Like the rest of us, I worry. About my children’s and grandchildren’s futures. I get angry and frustrated, irritable and anxious, depressed and erratic. I overwork and underwork. I obsess and disconnect, just like everyone else.
But as I do, I also try to observe and notice the fact that I am experiencing these emotions and patterns. By doing so, it helps to remove me from the flux of rising feelings and reactions. While my yoga practice on the mat has helped me to foster this awareness, it has also allowed me to accept that my life and my mind do have these vacillations.
Instead of wishing I wasn’t vacillating, I watch the ebb and flow. And instead of beating myself up about not being perfectly calm and balanced 24-7, I remember that fluctuation is the nature of the mind and life itself.
Currently, the world and its leaders have given us lots to fluctuate about. As media outlets share the crisis, loss, and devastation of a war that continues to grow and snowball into something very few of us actually chose, I’ve not only been trying to watch myself, but also to search to understand why certain humans act and behave as they do?
Power = Control. Control = Power
At its root, psychology tells us that these dynamic forces are likely posturing to create the self-image they crave. The desire to control does have similar examples in nature. Lions, in particular, seem to follow a similar social structure that we as humans have somehow adopted. One strong male dominates. The rest accept and follow. The leader then becomes the protector of the pride.
In nature, this may make sense. But as humans in theory, our superior intelligence should separate us from the wild kingdom. As humans, we have created tools and strategies to improve our lifestyles and ease our existence through systems and community. Over the centuries of our time here on earth, we have evolved into beings with increased capacity. Not only to live, but to destroy.
Through the practice and study of yoga, we learn that part of the growth and renewal process does take some destruction. Destruction of habits that no longer serve us, old ways of thinking, unproductive thinking processes, and spiraling emotional patterning. From there the reconstruction can begin.
Power can come in many forms. While bulldozing and intimidation to control is the default method of gaining power, one of the greatest forms of power is learning to release the need for power and trust that life (your life especially) is unfolding as it is meant to. Not saying it’s easy. It’s a practice. Coming back to the place of centered unknowing, moment by moment, over and over again, is the work.
The world too is unfolding, whether we like what we see or not. Although we cannot control what is happening in the world out there, we can work to manage what we are feeling within.
Stay grounded in your practice. Each day, love your life and have gratitude for every little blessing in your life. If you look, there are many.
We cannot change the world. But we can make a difference, by remaining rooted in the here and now, and residing more gently in the unwavering world that lives in our heart and soul.