So like I was saying, I have been reviewing the last few years and I’m blown away at how much I’ve changed. And when I look at photos of myself from just three years ago (the ones from five years ago blow me away), I can’t get over how much I don’t see a resemblance to my current self at all. Not even in the least bit. It’s odd really; to see a photo of yourself and feel like you are looking at a stranger.
It’s taken some time, it’s taken some courage, and it’s taken some grieving and struggling. More than anything else though, it’s taken love to be here now.
Self-love, unconditional love, tough love … you name it, it all dissolves into love.
And in this moment, on the eve of the New Moon, just before Pluto goes into Retrograde and lines up with the Ascendent (the cusp of my 1st and 12th house), I am in awe of my life. I am in complete reverence for the magic and the shifts in my awareness. From where I stand right now, I remember so vividly, as if it were yesterday, when that alchemical shift started inside my heart. I knew there was more to life … so much more but my body was so tight and so stagnate and so … congested with fear, doubt and worry that I couldn’t get to it. It was so dense and scattered really.
My physical body needed to catch up to my spiritual body and it was having one helluva time. It’s like my spirit was on a jet plane and my poor body was still be pulled by horse and carriage … and it was carrying all of my old ancestral patterns with it.
The cry to shift was so subtle, but came up consistently in Eka Pada Rajakapotasana. I struggled and literally cried every time I would enter it. It was a cry that got louder in Ustrasana. My yoga practice was the beginning of my alchemical shift that has brought me here; and it’s what keeps me shifting every single day.
We are not stagnate beings, in fact, we are 75% water … we are supposed to shift and change … A LOT! And that can be really scary for a lot of people! I mean, what would we do if things were different when we woke up in the morning! EEEK!
And what’s really cool, when I look back just two years, and then five years, the change in my personal life hasn’t shifted immediately. I remember thinking it would. I remember assuming that if I simply stated that I was ready for a change, well then it would happen exactly when I wanted and how I wanted it to work out.
Yeah, not so much.
It happened just like the books say … in a time-lapse, slow-motion crazy sort of way that is different every time you look back at the unfolding of it all. Because that’s how it works, it isn’t up to you. The only thing that is up to you is the willingness to shift and expand.
For real.
It’s a willingness to see magic, believe in your path, and trust in the unknown. It’s a vulnerability to love and a readiness to create a grandiose life outside of your own imagination!
I remember, when I was 21 years old, I said I wanted to write a book about how you live your life in chapters. And how they are always leading you to the next one and the next one and the next one. I haven’t written that book just yet, but I sure am living it. The odd thing is … every chapter ends in love and begins with wonder.
By Dana Damara
“My passion on the mat is proper alignment, powerful breath and effortless flow so you feel that off your mat. Your practice becomes sacred space where you arrive to find more meaning, depth, authenticity and integrity in your life."
- Dana Damara: mother, author, yoga instructor, speaker and yogini. Visit DanaDamara.com for more inspiration from Dana.
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