This past wknd I was invited to be a guest at an event for the Art of Living called “World Culture Festival.” We don’t know/hear much abt it in the US, bc its roots trace back to a man Ravi Shankar, from India, who’s built a humanitarian org of mostly volunteers, over the last 40yrs. An estimated 350 mill ppl follow this man’s teachings.
This Art of Living was the same group where I learned the breathing practice that helped me begin my healing journey, when so many other treatments had failed me for 2.5yrs. If you remember the story, I showed up to a “breathing course” for a wknd, where I was the only male, only one under 40, & only one born in this country. It was me, 8 women of Indian decent, & 9 yoga mats. I was a fish out of water.
Regardless, bc of how this org helped me, thru learning that practice, I’ve stayed friendly w them. A # of months ago, they’d asked me to put together a group of leaders from various athlete-focused MH groups, to form a committee on student athlete mental wellness. Therefore, at their event this wknd, they invited a # of us from that committee down, including Rachel Baribeau ➡️ to speak on a panel at a Global Leadership Forum on Saturday.
This first slide here is one of my key takeaways from a speaker from that event. Sure, it’s my own interpretation of what I heard…I’m not a copious notes taker, & I like putting in my own spin, but think about how accurate this statement is:
If we don’t make changes…if we don’t proactively disrupt our routines, someone or some thing is going to disrupt us (& usually not in a pleasant way).
We develop routines that FEEL safe. Often those routines do not serve us. They just serve to keep us from feeling pain/discomfort. If we don’t adjust & find ways to dive into our stuff & work on it (even if it feels disruptive at first), disruption in an even more intense way is going to find us. Maybe it’s a MH complication, or an autoimmune disease, or even a physical health ailment brought on from cumulative trauma.
Bottom line, we have to get comfortably uncomfortable & dive in to our stuff to avoid even more pain down the road.