What you do doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be true.

When I set off on the Camino de Santiago last May, one of my main objectives during the first few days, as my body adapted to walking long stretches with a backpack, was to reflect on what I needed to do to ensure I was approaching the journey as a pilgrimage, rather than treating it like a hiking trip.

This enquiry set the foundation for the entire pilgrimage. It urged me to pay honest attention to what was true here and now. Then, as if I needed confirmation, I came across a personal reflection from John Brierley’s practical and mystical guidebook on day #3:

‘’…I have a blister on my heel and a bruised shoulder. Was it arrogance or absentmindedness that made me ignore the advice to stop and tighten my shoelaces and the strap on my backpack – 60 seconds of adjustment would have prevented the friction and saved days of unnecessary suffering. I have become so conditioned to travelling in the fast lane, always trying to get somewhere in the shortest possible time, that I forget present moment awareness…’’

It served me well. I have been practising mindfulness in yoga and meditation for a long time and it took stepping out of my comfort zone to experience it in a new light.?

I have been inviting and reminding those in my yoga classes and recent Blausee Retreat to know that our yoga practice is less about mastery and really an enquiry of what’s true here, right now.?

An enquiry into how our physical body feels, how our emotional body feels, without judgement or the need for it to be different, opens everything up about our practice, so we have a sense of agency as how to move forward, one breath at a time.?

Often when we pay attention to negative sensations and emotions and give them space to be, they shift into something new.?

Have you ever wrestled to come to yoga practice or meet yourself on the mat because you’re feeling too tired, too stiff, not good enough, or it’s been too long??

Yoga is great when we’re feeling good, healthy and flexible but the real value and transformation is revealed when we’re feeling resistance, exhaustion, doubt or judgement and show up anyway.??

What you do doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be true.?

I heard poet, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer explain this exquisitely in a conversation with Tara Brach recently. In 2006, after tragically losing her son, a friend invited Rosemerry to write a poem a day for 30 days. She thought it would be an impossible task, yet took up the dare, and found two other people with the promise to send each other a poem every day.?

The profound learning she discovered from those 30 days, was that it didn’t have to be good. Previously, it had been really important for her to write something good, which meant she often didn’t write anything at all.?

When she realised she couldn’t write something good every day, this shifted the whole reason for writing, how she showed up to a blank piece of paper and then the question became, what if she could write something true every day??

This opened everything up for her as a practice and how she began to view the world.?

Moving Forward

In the aftermath of the US election results, let us stay open to what is difficult, and to what is beautiful, together.?

Allow the intimacy of your surroundings to support you. Moments of deep connection and joy are still here within our reach.

We can believe a new cycle will open and we will be ready to ride the wave.???

Let me know what is coming up for you. What is difficult? What is beautiful?

Share what you’re noticing in words or images here.

Continue to?be present, and care deeply.?

Karen x?

P.S. Rosemerry continues to write a poem a day, you can receive them here. Enjoy the conversation between Tara and Rosemerry?here.?

PPS: Join me for group yoga below, bring 2 friends, it may be the beginning of a lifelong practice ?? Or enquire about private yoga or coaching lessons online or in-person here.