Brahma, Vishnu, Śiva

Creation, preservation, destruction...

These are founding principles of yoga philosophy, personified in Hindu gods: everything that exists, once did not. It came into form, from nothingness. It is living now, and it will dissolve back into nothingness one day.

Moving into this new year, ponder what is ready to go, to die, to return to formlessness in your life. Perhaps this is the only way for that new thing to be born.

Can you see the places where you are stuck, or attached, or afraid?
 

The important thing is to be

able at any moment to sacrifice

what we are

for what we could become. 

- Charles Du Box

As you likely know, your mind is always ready to remind you of dangerous, painful, unpleasant experiences. It will replay them, like Cal Worthington and his dog Spot, until you're singing the jingle to the rhythm of your footsteps.

Anything repeated enough times starts to feel like truth (think Osama Bin Laden / Saddam Hussein) or at least it sounds like something you don't need to question anymore, especially if it sounds scary. 

For example, for decades, Hormone Replacement Therapy,
or HRT, was said to give women breast cancer. I recently learned that those studies were poorly done, and "results" were handed over to the press, before the trials were completed! The science was faulty for such a broad proclamation to be made, and as a result something like 80% of the women on hormones, stopped using them.

These vital hormones (estrogen and progesterone) can support menopausal women with many typical conditions, like osteoporosis, colorectal cancer, hot flashes, sleeplessness, irritability, existential worries, and more. Many menopausers missed out on these kinds of relief, and we could stamp our feet and shout once again, "If this had been happening to male bodies, things would be different!".

Gratefully, some folks are doing that activist work, and also encouraging their clients to drink, once again, from the rivers estrogen and progesterone. Now we know.

If you are ready for a resource for menopausal support, check out Dr. Jennifer Scanlon at
https://mauvemd.com/

These cycles will likely continue to repeat: an idea is born, it has a life, it dies. Oh wait, let's revisit and establish a new idea! And so on.

As we are continuously learning that things are not the way we thought they were, can we simply let some of those old ideas soften, and start to get comfy with that new sun on the horizon. It can be sticky or insincere to just release a belief, so go at your own pace, follow your individual path. Eventually we may see all sides.

"Enlightenment is intimacy with all things."

            —13th-century Buddhist priest and writer Dōgen Zenji

Can we reflect on our cherished beliefs, and sort, once again, for those that uphold our best selves? Or that offer a hand up to someone else?

Associate reverently, as often as you can, with your loftiest thoughts - Thoreau

Make way for something new and amazing.