We were walking together down the white sandy beach of Costa Rica in the late morning of November. Each of us silent, tired from the sun and the ocean waves, trying to keep pace with one another but exhaustion kept us staggered. There were three of us and as we walked two of us would veer toward one another and the third would be walking as the outlier. I observed as it seemed some sort of energy drew us together and then apart again, but the unified intention of getting to our destination kept us going in the same direction. Just as the tides of the ocean come in and then out, the Universe seems to pulse that way and we pulse with it. Knowingly or unknowingly we are all headed in the same direction of conscious creation. Just as a flower blooms and spreads its seed, we were born to create and realize our potential. I find it an incredible feat to battle the natural tides, but sometimes I try. Sometimes I feel unworthy of my true nature and act small. We must serve as reminders for one another so that we don’t get lost for too long. We must remind one another of this essential truth and walk along the path together toward our destination. When we can settle into the beautiful rhythm of the Universe and receive all that it has provided, we will find it much, much easier to see and feel into our greatness.
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As we continued to walk I became aware of how my mind would wander and then come back to observe. I thought of my friends walking beside me. They had their own stories. They had risen every day and gone to sleep as I had since the day they were born. They lived each moment through their own set of lenses. They had endured pain, love, joy, despair. On top of all this they had their mind. A mind that created it’s own stories on top of everything. They had
people who helped shape them. They identified with all of it or none of it and even though I did not live their life, we were the same. We all shared samsara and we all shared the Universal Spirit. So why does it feel as if we are separate sometimes? I had this physical story and this mental story of my own and it’s the stories that separate us. The stories keep us from presence, because in this moment we are One. Stories are a lot to keep up with, and if you ask me, it takes a lot of wasted energy to entertain them.
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When I got home from the walk, I felt this overwhelming sense of story pour over and through me like the plague. I felt nearly overwhelmed by it, but the beautiful part of it was I was AWARE of it. Awareness came in like a white knight and said, “This. You are not.” Awareness brings Conscious Creation. Once we are aware of the stories, we can spend our energy bringing the mind, body, and spirit in alignment by simply stating, “I am.”
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A great teacher once said “Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,
Love is knowing I am everything,
and between the two my life moves.”
Everything else is just an illusion. How can we drop the stories and just be with one another? By taking this breath and entering the Conscious Awareness, in this moment. When I do that, I am become aware of this great nothingness and my mind rushes to fill it with stories. However, if I can stick with it and persist the nothingness unfolds into everything I need at any given moment. Can I stick with it? I will try, just for today, to drop the story and stay in this present moment, breath by breath. Hold my hand, and join me in this journey.
Alana Roach is a International Yogi currently based out of Annapolis, MD. Formerly adorned by the city lights and the busy str
eets of America, she was then whisked away by the illustrious path of yoga and took to traveling the world to share it with others. A few years back she started to write about the transformation she undertook by practicing conscious meditation. She practices and teaches varied styles of yoga , leads international retreats, loves surfing, being in nature, and enjoys a good belly laugh. She is on Facebook , Instagram, Twitter, and can be reached by email explorationsofself@gmail.com
Alana’s love for yoga came from firsthand experience with just how powerful the practice is. “In 2009, Yoga found me. Inside the studio, she experienced a deep sense of belonging, but the most profound part was what happened after. “I felt as though I was at true peace. I finally knew what the word meant. Until that moment, I had just understood it cerebrally. There is something profound to be said about Peace dropping into the heart.”