Mind this Scorpio Full Moon (copy 01)

Not everyone has the resources for high quality “therapy” or expensive lightwork/shadow-work programs. This is a main reason I’m offering the following  as an alternative (donation-based) approach. If you know someone who is suffering and who holds the story that they cannot afford to “work on themselves,” please direct them here if you feel so called. 
 

EYC peeps: look for resources in your email later that I’ve found fascinating & supportive this week. 

Register here: https://erikakluthe.com/register/ Or to read more about it, click:  https://erikakluthe.com/donation-based-membership-details/ Feel free to email or text (see website) with questions. Cancel easily anytime. No pressure. Just an opportunity to feel better in a wild world. 

I run into an awful lot of you around town and that’s just a serendipitous thing. The top two comments I get are: “Are you still living in Austin?” And, “Are you teaching anywhere?” Yep, living in Austin with the ole van packed and ready for a local or non-local jaunt at any moment. AND…I did wind up accepting a permanent class at Flow Yoga on North Loop (up near where I am living). So, starting this coming Thursday the 29th I’ll be regularly teaching the 4:30 pm Flow & Chill. I also juuuust started randomly subbing classes at the last minute, so if you’re ever curious about that, just check their schedule online and see if my name is up that day. Funny enough, I’ve run in to a few of you at this studio and glad to see many of us branching out and having new experiences in the Austin yoga world. One of many nice things about Flow is that they offer unlimited yoga for $30 for 30 days. (Ps, this is NOT some advertisement that I get paid for…it’s just a FYI). A couple months back I did the 30 for $30 to get a feel for the place. So, if you wanna try a new thing, there’s that. What else?…

The wild trickster energy that gripped me in the previous weeks has officially passed. For now. Looking back it feels like a giant dark storm that rolled in. And I certainly got caught up in it—enough to get my hair wet and close-ish to a lightning strike that singed the hairs on my arms. But just like how a big rainstorm encourages many of us to run inside, that metaphorical storm did the very same for me. I have a stronger sadhana, or daily practice than I’ve had in years and I can feel a sort of maturing or deepening of myself, within myself. If that makes sense. And I’m looking for no applause nor applesauce here. Just sharing my experience. Another part of me is a real excitement junkie and I get random jolts of very irritating booooooredom or discontentedness that I can’t stand. That make me want to run off to some tropical island or to join a circus. Maybe its my enneagram. I’M A FOUR! Maybe its the addict archetype that occasionally wants its wild party days back but needs to re-focus on healing service work instead (those of you participating in 12 steps will, I suspect, understand this). Perhaps it’s a response to a dense/fearful collective energy hanging around due to global political upheaval. Who knows. Like the rest of us, I’m doin my best inside of this strange earth experience.  

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: 

“The bad news is we are hurtling through the air with no parachute on. The good news is there’s no ground.” 

This remembered-line came to me seemingly out of nowhere today. I wanted to put words to some wordless feeling I’m having, but nothing was coming to me. I had had a headache for a few hours so laid down with a cold pack on my head when the line drifted in. And I said, “Yep, that’s it.” Here’s a little breakdown of the line:

The quote, often attributed to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, explains the nature of impermanence and the need for letting go. The “bad news” of falling without a parachute represents the inevitable changes and uncertainties of life, where we have no control and feel like we’re losing our footing. The “good news” of no ground signifies the realization that there’s nothing to cling to, nothing to fall onto, and therefore, nothing to fear. This understanding allows us to embrace the present moment and the fluidity of existence, as there’s no need for a fixed or stable state. 

Broken down more: 

Falling without a parachute:
This represents the anxieties and uncertainties of life, the feeling of being out of control and/or having no support.

No ground:
This signifies the absence of a fixed reality, a stable ground to land on, or a predictable future. It also symbolizes the impermanence of all things.

The realization of no ground:
This is the key to the quote. It’s about accepting that there’s no need to cling to things, no need to control the uncontrollable, and no need to worry about the future. It’s about recognizing that the only solid ground is our own present moment and our own natural state of being.

Embracing the fall:
By accepting that there’s no ground, we can embrace the fall, which becomes a metaphor for letting go of attachment to things, ideas, and people. We can trust in the process of life, even when it feels uncertain or chaotic.

In essence, the quote encourages us to move beyond the fear of falling and embrace the freedom that comes from letting go of our need for control and security. It’s about learning to be present in the moment, even when things feel unstable, and trusting that we will be okay without a solid ground to stand on. 

Now, have I embodied any of this? Yeah, no. Just looking at the above words ruffles my feathers up because the words themselves makes the acts of “letting go of control or clinging/attaching or the need to worry,” seem freaking simple and I’m like”: BAH! Stop making this sound like it’s EASY! Like the saying goes: simple but not necessarily easy. Enter emoji blowing hot white steam from his snoot here!

I have no answers, ya’ll. No solutions. No pretty bow with which to wrap up this message. Whomever called earth the Harvard of the cosmos, wasn’t kidding. What I do have is a massive amount of what feels like compassion in my heart for those who are feeling pain, feel lost, feel confused. And then feeling glorious and experiencing fun moments and days where all seems (& perhaps IS) well. I am sitting by your side feeling it all WITH you. 

I’m putting the words down on “paper” here to help perhaps create some sort of temporary illusion of steadiness for myself & for anyone else in need, inside of the fall.

One of my favorite people told me this story this week: 

She told me that there was a handful of years she just could not get a clear understanding of what was going on inside of her life and life circumstances. She was working at a large company, making $12 dollars an hour. Sidenote: this person is one of the smartest and hardest working people I have met in my life. Probably The. So when she told me that she was doing the work of nearly every position in the company, I believed her 100%. She said she felt overwhelmed, overworked, lost, confused, you name it, she felt it. If I stand in her metaphorical shoes (I imagine them to be Chacos, or very comfy sneakers) and plug her into the parachute story above, I can hear the rush of wind by her ears and can feel the bottomless bottom beneath her. Little did she realize that that next year she would be running a competing company, making $120 an hour. She had been in training and did not realize it. 

I was a long distance runner for years. Often when I was running I had this feeling like I was training for something. Creative writing and teaching were at the center of my life so why did I need to be in such strong physical shape I wondered? Little did I know then that my entire life would do a flip and my focus would shift to yoga.   

Perhaps any number of us is training for what is next. It is a comforting thought to me. I hope you feel even a drop of peace settle in with the thought. 

And in the words of good ole Pema: “Things come together and then fall apart, then come together again and fall apart again. And that is the nature of all things.” 

If you are a human on earth reading this, deep bow to you for humaning. Deep, deep bow. I definitely have my moments of forgetting, but just like when I would run and have that feeling that there was a greater purpose for what I was doing than I could consciously realize, I suspect unexpected joy ahead. I’m gonna hold on to that as I fly through the air. 

WITH you. 

Erika

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           Evolving Your Consciousness