I am deeply rested.  And I confused it with being unmotivated, blue, unsure how to move forward.  Being unmotivated doesn’t even sound or feel like me.  But it has been a very challenging 4+ months – personally and professionally.  And I realized that the deep rest was so incredibly unfamiliar, that I mistook it for all things ‘wrong’ instead of ‘peace at last.’

[easyazon_image add_to_cart=”default” align=”right” asin=”1570623449″ cloaking=”default” height=”160″ localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JDX–q-YL._SL160_.jpg” tag=”rochrice-20″ width=”105″]When your world is upside down, when you can’t tell where to begin or who to talk to first to sort things out, it can put you in such a spin that you think surely you will never find your way out.  [easyazon_link asin=”1570623449″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”rochrice-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Shambhala Classics)[/easyazon_link] by Pema Chödrön is one of my all time ‘go to’ books.  Pema suggests that the approach to suffering that will have long term benefits is to move toward painful situations (I know…right?).  She advises to move toward the situation with “friendliness and curiosity, relaxing into essential groundlessness (yes – you read that right).  It is there, in the midst of chaos, that we can discover the truth and love that are indestructable.”

Some days, I literally don’t have the stomach for this. And for the past 4+ months I can say I have done everything BUT move toward painful situations.  In fact, I would say I have been running from these painful situtions, cloaking them instead with ‘tactical solutions.’  (OK – maybe once or twice I peaked my head out of the suffering).  But when she writes about addictions being a “short-term pleasure for a long-term hell” – I know she’s speaking my language.

It’s not easy to lead an active lifestyle.  It’s not easy to live moment by moment with a food program that supports you.  It’s not easy to maintain a balanced life – whatever that means to you.  But as Pema reminds us “We can make ourselves miserable, or we can make ourselves strong.  The amount of effort is the same.”

Wishing you a day filled with peace, breath and the courage to move toward your painful situations.

I’m hoping you’ll move with me.