Pick It Up Again and Again
Updated: May 16
I have always loved the idea of having a genie in a bottle. The idea of rubbing the side of a bottle and wishes being granted without any strings attached is a fabulous one. Who thought of such a great idea? Someone who needed something special to emerge with immediacy, I bet.
We all have needs. Being in the body demands our attention on so many levels, from dense to subtle. And our culture is used to our needs being met more instantaneously than ever before. But that does not stop us from needing things on a daily basis.
I have often seen in the yoga community a resistance to needing. Like monks, which many of us are not, we expect alms. We tell ourselves that all will come to us, and we should not have to talk about, reach for, or even push into those things that we need. But, what about a shower? Do we wait in resistance to showering when we know the body will eventually stink if we do not clean it? NO.
There has never been another time in this universal STORY when we could put food into a machine called an air frier and in minutes heat food to a sizzle. Nor has there been a time when we could type in a question and within moments get multiple answers. This information age is incredible!! Still, there are things that we need, even that we need to do. We don't need to be ashamed of our human experience. We came to have a human experience.
I remember when people would say, all I have to do is live and die. So crude, but true, and no one can do either of those for us. We live in the body until we do not. No one can live for us, or lose the weight for us, or tone up the mind in order for positive things to come out for us.... There are only a few things that can be changed about the body instantly without picking up something or paying someone to get it done. And even when we pay someone, the maintenance is still up to us.
WHAT WE BECOME IS UP TO US
No matter how exciting a genie in a bottle is, it is not real, as far as I know. Though the miraculous does happen every day. Correct me if I'm wrong, and please, pretty please, show me how to get one if you know where they are being kept. Until then it is best that we consider what we do know: we are unique bottles with unique needs, and what we become is up to us.
This bottle we inhibit is made clear in a story that I recently read about God having created human beings and realizing He'd made a terrible mistake. So calling a council of elders together, He told them of his predicament. "Oh, no," He shared: "they will always be talking to me and wanting things from me, and I won't be able to rest." Hearing God's dilemma, they offered Him some suggestions:
You can hide on Mount Everest,
You can hide on the moon,
Or you can hide deep in the earth.
God responded by saying that humans were too resourceful for these suggestions and that they would find Him still. But then one elder had an idea that he whispered into God's ear, and it enlivened God. "Yes," He said. "That is it! I will hide inside of each human, and they will never find me there!"
I love this story, though it is to me clearly fictitious, because it reminds me of one very important thing: We are never alone. Our Creator hides insides of us and provides us the power to do more than we could ever ask or imagine. *He gives us the power to access and have those things that we need. (* I do not believe that my Creator is solely male, but for the sake of this blog, let us stick with this pronoun, if you don't mind.)
Truthfully, this is better than a genie in a bottle. The power that we have is in our own hands, not in the genie's. It's not in our having the "right" bottle because we are the only bottle we have and need. The Spirit that comforts and listens and creates is inside there!
HOW CAN WE USE THE POWER HIDDEN INSIDE?
If the power is hidden inside, how do we access it? Anything hidden is deliberately hard to find, right? Yes and No.
What I mean is, what The Most High has put inside of you is not without your knowing. Each day you can see the power inside of you without a doubt. You wake up, breathe in, move in unique ways, meet the people who you are supposed to meet... much of this is completely without your having to think about it. Yet, it happens. Not to mention all the things you intend to happen that also happen. You are power full.
The world is constantly projecting back to you the power that you possess.
When things fall in line or you accomplish a task with ease, you are in your power. It is not hidden in those moments. It is not hidden from you, though you don't always see it. What moves you and makes you who you are, and the world that you have created for your bottle to live in is mysteriously and magnificently yours. It has been given to you for a purpose. It is a reflection of what is inside of you, which you can address at anytime when you get still and silent enough to behold it.
I am told that Buddhists believe when you die, your world dies too. All that you have created deflates without your attention to it on this plane.
Last week I went on a voice fast. For a whole 24 hours or more, I did my best to rest my voice. Not being able to sing or talk to my son and cat really was the hardest parts. But it let me off the hook for the day. All I thought was mine and all I heard was deliberate.
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, I spoke about this in a post that I shared there. Give me a follow @courtneyrohanyoga. There I shared how I had a reading done in which the Teller shared that I was not to have success in the way that I thought. I knew exactly what she was speaking about once I thought about it. Though at first I thought, "Really!"
I was recently denied access to UNCC's doctorate program for Health Psychology. I was devastated for the day after the news. The letter read something along the lines of: you are a wonderful fit, but there are others who we chose and who we accepted before you, and there are only limited seats. I had grieved this loss, knowing that I could reapply or apply somewhere else. So when she said I was not going to be successful in the way I thought, I was not thinking about this.
The reading brought me back to this determination. "Not for You" she told me. I know that I can push and find a position in a program, but to be honest with you, I was questioning if this was to be a part of my path at this time, too. After she told me "Spirit is saying: 'You are destined for success but not in the way that you think,'" she told me that I need to get quiet and do a voice fast, and more, that I need to heal my root chakra around seeking achievement as my ancestors have previously.
So, Monday last week, I got quiet for the day. My phone went off and my voice did too. It is always lovely to fast my voice as a teacher when most of what I do is talk and listen and discuss and review.... I have fasted this way before several times, and each time, I come out of the fast with such pearls of wisdom that I would not have been able to hear otherwise. Sometimes, I don't even want to turn my voice back on. To be quiet yields so much peace.
The most important thing that I took away from last Monday was that I can not do the work I am here to do if I do not listen to that which is hidden inside of me. If I forget what I have been given and the power that I possess, I will never be able to meet the need, not mine or anyone else's.
WHAT DO YOU NEED NOW?
Where is your faith in that which is greater than you, creates worlds and has been "hidden" strategically inside of you? If you are not sure or you are sure you lack faith in your power, you can do something about this! You can pick it up again. Whenever you feel lost, you can reconnect with who you are again. Just keep coming back to yourself.
1. Start with your belief about who/what you think you are. Write a couple "I am" statements. Try to leave the labels for a moment and think about what you are beyond a role or job.
2. How strongly do you believe each of these things about yourself? Rate your "I am" statements (on a scale of 1-11) based on your belief in them. It is OK if it is not 11. That is valuable information.
3. Shift your perspective. If you are stuck or feel trapped in any belief because something is limiting you, change the way you look at it. What you look at will change as a result. You can do this physically by moving your body or by moving your thoughts. Start by asking yourself some liberating questions (as seen in Byrone Katie's: The Work).
4. Feel and listen again. Our feelings change all the time. When we listen without expectation to what comes up for us in each moment, we are able to see anew. This is considered the beginner's mind. Don't assume you know anything.
5. Read about who your Creator is. Read a source that you trust or meditate to tap into what the energy of your Creator looks, feels, be-s like. You were made in THAT image. What He is, so are you that when you are in your power.
It is exciting to know that we are more than that which we see. We are Infinite expressing ITself. What a bunch of bottles we are. Rub up a wish for yourself this life time. If I can help you pick up your container, body-mind and spirit, again, I offer tools that support the human experience, so you can meet the needs that emerge in and around you.
We will change as the space within and around us does. That is inevitable. The space around and within us changes with consistency, but our Creator stays the same, hidden in the center of it all, making what is best for us happen for us when we ask and believe.
Check out my offerings below and join me as you need! Pick yourself up again and again and allow your Creator to meet your needs as only He can, and when you can't seem to connect again, hear again, listen again... get the support that you need.
XO Courtney
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