Dolphins

Just got in from teaching my class at World Gym. We became dolphins with our breath...the inhale rising us up out of the water, the exhale sliding us deep within the comforting blue....mmmm.....

While my students were laying there breathing, I laid my head on a big ball and looked up at the sky, thinking of the dolphins and how wonderful my life is. When the dolphins enter the deep, they don't worry about whether they'll go too deep or too far. When it's time to come up, they just break the surface, joyfully, without caring that they will have to go back down again.

There's a strong message there.

Yesterday Barry and I were chatting about our wonderful restorative yoga day (thanks to everyone who came, it was lovely!) and how we were a wee bit tired (well, more than a wee bit) and how we still have a whole lot to do before the Open House and I stopped him in mid sentence.... "let's not whine or moan about how busy we are or how tired we are, let's embrace that this is life....our life.... and we have chosen it and we are so blessed to be lucky enough to see our dreams coming true, let's not ruin it by running the familiar track of proving we are worthy because we are busy" As I listened to what I was saying or shall I say the words coming out of my mouth since it seemed to be coming through me as opposed to from me, I was thinking what a powerful insight that really was. So many times we ruin the high by thinking we have to downplay it or prove that we deserve it or that it really isn't all that anyway.

Marianne Williamson (Course in Miracles) said, "Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us." It could just as well be said that your playing overburdened or busier or more stressed is not going to make others feel good about their lives, in fact, it has just the opposite effect... it makes us feel inadequate if we are not stressed or overburdened, when you get a minute to yourself you feel like you have to hide the fact that you relaxed.

The dolphin imagery reminded me of this today. Can you imagine a dolphin feeling over burdened because they have to break the surface of the water to breathe AGAIN? Or being pissy because they have to slice into the deep AGAIN? Would a dolphin say, "Jeez, it just keeps going on and on, I come up to breathe only to have to go back down and swim.....unbelievable!"

I much prefer the option of being so joyous about having to come up and breathe that it keeps getting bigger and bigger til I actually let my whole body rise up out of the water and twist my way back down deep, deep into the depths.

Yeah. That feels good. Big Breath now.....