Beyond The Turbulence: Inner Safety for "Bad" Weather

Strikingly, in the last decade, two phenomena have been veering in the direction of imbalance more and more,

• outer climate/weather on our planet (macrocosm)

• inner climate/weather (mental health) in humans (microcosm)

The data and sentiment are reeling toward a rapid acceleration in both these imbalances.

I am reminded of a Sanskrit verse from the Puranas, a text believed to be at least 8,000 years old.

"Yat pinde tat brahmande".

Simply translated it means, as in the microcosm, so in the macrocosm.

Yogā is a path of personal responsibility for freedom, svatantrā.

As such, it offers us tools to make epigenetic changes in life's physical and subjective experiences. The basis of this is that conditioning limits us and our whole journey is to break out of conditioning to live as the expansive infinite intelligence we truly are.

I'll share a simple personal example.

I was raised as most Indian kids growing up in India in the 1980's to be afraid of almost everything. "Don't go near the water, you will drown." "Don't get wet in the rain, you will catch a cold."

The yogic path, through both meditation and awareness-based self-inquiry, is to question everything, not to be a rebel but for the purpose of expansion.

As I write this, hurricane Beryl is active here in the Cayman Islands. It has been an amazing opportunity for practice.

• Conditioning would tell me, to be afraid.

• Conditioning would tell me, God is punishing us.

• Conditioning would tell me, that hurricanes are bad.

• Conditioning would tell me to feel anger at the hurricane and sadness, pity, and compassion for all affected. "The hurricane is a terrible thing."

There is no presence of these. Instead, there is a quietude that everything is as it should be. Global warming is a strong contender for the intensity of this hurricane and I have contributed to it. That everything is always happening in our favour.

Having lived through a Category 3 hurricane, the devastating Mumbai floods of July 2005 and narrowly missing being killed in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008 and the Barcelona attack in 2017, all by a few minutes or less than a few hours, it is possible to observe from past responses, that something has shifted. From watching discombobulated limbs alongside the train tracks, tremoring sans a body to the experience this time, something changed and that change has nothing to do with me.

Where did the PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) from all those experiences go one may ask? I never did any therapy or meditations to heal from them. In all honesty, it is a natural progression of the practices whose effects compound over time and are accessible to anyone "stubborn" enough to keep practicing. And as a teacher once said to a very arrogant me, quoting Hamlet "There are more things in heaven and on earth that are dreamt of in your philosophy." Perhaps, I am still just scratching the surface.

One practice that can help us all cultivate this sense or rather being-ness is yogā nidrā. You can listen and practice here. A particular nidra for pain and discomfort including physical pain and traumas can be accessed here.

Writing this blog is just an invitation to question the hold conditioning has on us and how that potently informs our experience, adding narrative to data that in turn causes a response of attraction (rāga) or aversion (dvesha).

While this is a journey, on a very practical note, as we focus on external safety, we must not forget internal safety.

Once everything external is sorted out as best as possible, and the "waiting" begins, the mind can get the better of us. At this time regulating our nervous system for mental clarity and energy conservation is valuable beyond measure.

Here are 3 practices to help you start shifting from conditioned fear to inviting trust during natural disasters of any kind.

1. Increase the length of your breath
2. Connect to Source Energy
3. Ask yourself this question "Where do I place my trust in life? And am I living that trust?”

For simple steps to practice these 3, watch this video.

Stay safe. Stay in trust.

Blog picture credit: Shashank Sahay Unsplash

Co-meditation can help transform inner storms into inner calm. Read more here.