Day 14: Stop Blaming the World

DAY 14 of the Sun Salutation Challenge

ANYONE who has been trying the Sun Salutation challenge — what have you noticed? I’m going to hallucinate that you are either noticing very nice changes, or you managed to “get too busy” to do it. Or, you ran into an obstacle, and instead of researching easier versions, or visualizing/breathing along, you shamed yourself out of doing it.

Frankly, I think one aspect of human psychology could be considered a “life drive” and a “death drive.” The two are complementary, and have to function together to create a psyche that both protects and destroys, in proper balance. Make no mistake: to change who you are, you have to destroy the old ego-self. Otherwise you rot in place. The “life” drive can kill you. The Death drive, the destructive leading edge of exploration and growth, can heal you.

In proper proportion. If you look at what is necessary to create art, to build muscle, to change society, it becomes obvious that these processes have both nurturance and a form of (at least) psychological violence to them. The trick is to balance them to get a very special creative/destructive unity. Viewed this way, we can see how that mix of fear and violence cripples and destroys, but how love and nurturance can actually stunt growth. “Stay Hungry” is a common advice among champions. And best believe it: unless you are protected by natural barriers or someone else is doing your fighting for you, you’d better have BOTH adult and child, female and male, yin and yang, creation AND…