I can’t even begin to define this any better than my teacher Janet Stone: 

“Svadharma: to find and follow the path of one’s own being.

By bringing attention and intention to our natural gifts and inclinations, we discover, then step firmly onto the path within yoga that will most nurture our self-understanding, our awakening, and the realizing of our divine nature.”

Yes … that.

It’s been tough for me to even think about this theme, let alone write about it, with this New Moon in Aries!  But oddly when I sat down to write about it, I realized I was living it. 

Integration … taking what we’ve learned and weaving it into our lives

at least that’s how I define it. 

This word - this word - oh this word.  So all encompassing, and yet so individual isn’t it?  I mean, the definition itself is fairly dynamic! In fact, there isn’t even just one definition for the word – there’s multiple! 

“the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected, or the state of being connected.”

“the state of being connected by blood or marriage."

“the way in which two or more people or organizations regard and behave toward each other”

Image courtesy of Gaiam and Nicole Howe

I started thinking about this theme and remembered a quote from the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali Swami Satchidananda:

You have all these things to equip yourself to serve others. You must have a bed to rest in to feel refreshed in the morning, to go out to serve others. You must eat to have enough energy to serve others. So you do everything with the idea that you are preparing yourself to serve others. So, even your Yogic meditation becomes a selfless action. That is what is meant by “Even with God do not have attachment”. This non-attachment alone is enough to change your entire life into a joyful one.

I love this quote so much because it speaks the ultimate truth.  And the ultimate liberation toward this constant selfless action in life requires eradicating separateness.  Because what’s so epic about this idea is that … when we are serving ourselves we are actually serving others … but when we are serving others … in truth we are only serving ourselves. 

My goodness - this theme.  It started out as new beginnings and then I couldn’t help myself, I had to add in a bit of fairy dust. 

Practical magic – seemingly an oxymoron isn’t it?  But the truth is when we surrender to them, they actually work together quite well.  And as a recovering Type A who is definitely dabbling in “other dimensions of reality”, I have to admit that I’m not sure how well one is without the other now. 

I have been thinking a lot about this word this week.  The word came to me with the help of a thesaurus to be honest.  I was trying to encapsulate how I felt after returning from Tulum and the words re-charged, re-calibrated, re-newed and re-aligned kept coming to me.  But those words indicated that I was somehow … “off” in my being.  And to be honest … I don’t think we are ever “off”.

I love love... I mean I really love LOVE! I’ve been accused of overusing the word in some of my circles. Regardless of that, I continue to use it because it rolls off my tongue and feels good when I say it.

“Love.” “I love you.” “I love my life.”

This week I looked up the word transmute again – just to see if that theme actually vibrated with what I have been feeling into. Because you see, when I “pick” a theme, I try really hard to allow it to come to me.  I look to see what’s happening in the planets and I feel into what’s “hot” out there.  And then I see how and if it relates, so things make sense. 

Nothing is just random you know, it’s all Divine. 

A grasshopper leaps only forward…it never leaps backward! When you think about it, that really makes so much sense.

Leaping forward for us humans means trusting your instincts, joy, abundance and virtue. It means living from your heart and not your mind. It means trusting your gut and not over analyzing every detail that you most likely don’t have control over, anyway. It means saying yes before you know every single, potential consequence of your choice.

I really liked this theme … sovereignty: having supreme authority over oneself.  It was an interesting one to follow “intuition” but yet, so timely and complimentary. 

From a very young age, we tend to look outside ourselves for validation, guidance and information.  I witness this every day with my two daughters.  And as a parent, I know it’s okay to validate and respond with praise but, at the same time, it’s just as important if not MORE important, to allow them to make their own decisions (even though I’m cringing inside), so they can learn to gain that sense of sovereignty. 

All week I have been playing in the realm of intuitive guidance. In fact, one of my phrases for the year is intuitive guidance. Being open to it, as always, but more than that, actually following it.

Really dropping in and listening … intently. Not questioning, not wondering, but actually following through.