how to ride the waves

trust your instincts

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

Goethe

In an age of social media ads, influencer tips, and blogger recipes, the “best” way to live can seem confusing. It can feel challenging to trust in our gut and innate instincts when we are constantly questioning if we are doing things “right.”

Although Goethe has a point – when we trust our Selves, we realize that we know how to live – the truth is that sometimes life smacks us upside the head. Tara Brach says that life does not cooperate – we must learn to have a relationship with life, especially when it turns us upside down [as it inevitably will]. When the waves come crashing, we must learn how to ride them.

A week at Rayos Del Sol during my recent retreat provided some invaluable life lessons, as time with Mother Earth tends to do. I am obviously quite drawn to nature, however I also sometimes fear its power, the ocean in particular.

On the flip side, I trust nature’s healing abilities and find myself in or near the water any chance I get. I learned to swim at an early age, and so I trust my abilities to listen to the waves as best I can instead of fighting their strength [which of course includes avoiding them when necessary – don’t mess around with bad weather].

As someone who is personally going through a phase of uprootedness, getting pummeled by waves and surfboards in Costa Rica was a reminder that, at the end of the day, I can make it. I moved through it. I am OK.

Life is not always black and white, signs are not always clear, people are not always easy to trust [our Selves included]. Although we must accept that we may get knocked off our feet from time to time, we can also learn to trust in our inherent capability to make it through some rough waters as we eventually resurface.

Here are a few wisdom nuggets I picked up from Pachamama on riding life’s waves:

• Pay attention to the signs. Even if they feel unclear, they appear in alignment with what we need to know at that moment. Every day at Rayos birds came to watch my practice, often in pairs, and when I searched for their meaning I read that they signified angels – or the bridging of heaven to earth. Before my retreat, I pulled a card from Danielle LaPorte’s #truthbomb deck that said “Angels, Angels Everywhere.” In my current uncertainty, I remind myself this every day, and my feathered visitors in Costa Rica were an additional hint.
• No need to rush. Life will go on, whether we are early for class or 5 minutes late or miss it all together. This is a tough one for me to implement, but imperative to our mental health. Trust that everything happens when and as it should, even if it is uncomfortable or undesirable – we can always learn from life and each other.
• Weather is weather, whether we like it or not. We had a brownout at Rayos one night, a full blackout for a few hours the following night, and pending questionable rain for a few nights [although it never did]. As the facilitator of this experience, I did my best to listen to the weather and act accordingly for the wellbeing of my students and my Self. When it was cooler in the morning, we practiced. When it got very hot, we rested. As the saying goes: there is no such thing as bad weather, just improper clothing.
• We are strong. We are going to be OK in the end [even if that in fact means the ultimate end – and I understand this is debatable]. I was not the only one who took a good beating from the waves and boards while surfing at Playa Guiones. We came out with some gnarly bruises, some worse than others, but we all made it back in one piece and continued on with our yoga practice – albeit slightly modified to suit our battle wounds.
• Teachers are simply a support system of your own personal growth and knowledge. We may not know every single thing about a certain subject, but neither do our teachers – my Self included [who can handle that pressure?]. There will always mystery, and we will always seek answers from healers or friends or maybe even blogs. Trust that you know what you need to know right now, and that you are guided to where you need to be.

Pay attention. Trust in what you see, hear, experience, witness. Trust that you know how to surf the waves as they ebb and flow.

What have you learned recently, from nature or life or someone else? How can you remember to trust in your innate wisdom instead of relying on something or someone to answer it for you?

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Photo: sunset at Playa Ostional during retreat at Rayos Del Sol, Costa Rica.