Lay Down Your Arms....

"Lay down your arms, and come without defense into the quiet place" - A Course in Miracles

Even though I've never read A Course in Miracles, I've read about it & this line in particular really resonates with me.  I shared this quote with my students in class the other night.

"Lay down your arms, and come without defense into the quiet place"

Now, I don't carry a weapon, so of course I don't have actual armaments to lay down (and I'm pretty sure that's not what this is referring to anyway!)  But most of us do spend a lifetime building up our defenses.  

Yet, when you get on your mat to practice, that's exactly what you're asked to do...lay down your arms, drop your defenses - allow yourself to be open & vulnerable.  Come into that quiet place within yourself, where there's peace & compassion.

If you've spent a lifetime building up your defenses & reinforcing them every chance you get, you may not even realize that there is a quiet place that exists within you. But with time & breath & practice, you find it.  You learn that you can drop your defenses.  You learn that you can be vulnerable & open.  And sure, it's scarey at first.  But it allows for so much to happen....change, growth, love....

When you become accustomed to laying down your arms on your mat, you can explore doing the same in your life.  Instead of sitting down at the Thanksgiving table with a snarky comeback to something that you're just waiting for your sister to say...lay down your arms.  Be full of Grace & Gratitude.  Recognize that if you are different, it can create a ripple effect in the other people at that table & in your life.  Now, it may not happen the first time.  The first time, everyone may think you're just plain nuts!  But with consistency & strength, its inevitable that change will occur.  Either the people at that table will start to change.  Or you'll change so much that you find yourself at a different table with different people next year...you'll find yourself someplace better.

Your mat is a safe place to practice laying down your arms.  It the perfect spot to practice coming into that quiet place.  It's amazing to feel that transformation within yourself.  But it's even more amazing to take this practice off your mat & experience the change that can happen around you.