Carry on, my friends

©2013 Nicole Bratt, Pollett’s Cove, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Dear friends,

The past week did not go as planned. This is an understatement.

Does this ever happen to you? Does it feel like the gods and goddesses of space and time are laughing at you? Can you eventually laugh at yourself?

I’m a planner and a doer. (Many of you may have heard me say, “I get shit done.”) And, I know very well about myself that I get attached to things going a certain way. Even after 2+ pandemic years of relentless practice not being in control, I still have a hard time accepting that I am not in control of all the things. This week was another solid lesson in this practice.

In yoga, ishvara pranidhana in essence means to practice cultivating deep and trusting relationship in this, your life… to soften and surrender to what actually is (instead of how it used to be, or how you want it to be)… to understand that our life itself can an offering to something bigger than us – no matter how things are unfolding… to accept that our lives each have a place and we are all connected.

When I find myself in the very human reaction of being upset or resistant to things not going “as planned” – I take heart in this concept of surrender. Not as a means of defeat, but as a great reminder that I can pause to take a conscious breath, acknowledge the feelings around the change, remind myself I’m not in control (and it’s ok), and then carry on.

In gratitude and abiding,
Nicole