Family

“Your family will see you as they see you… The important question is, ‘How do you see yourself? ’If I think that they need the Work, I need the Work. Peace doesn’t require two people; it requires only one. It has to be you… [it] begins and ends there. If your truth now is kind, it will run deep and fast within the family and will replace manipulation with a better way. As you continue to find your own way into inquiry, sooner or later your family will come to see as you yourself do. There’s no other choice.”

Byron Katie is responsible for the above quotes. A brief interpretation offered as support for my own process as well as yours. Our attention is all we have. Like light, air, water, our attention is an actual substance that we can bring to all of our interactions and exchanges. When we do, there is more space, even more luminosity in our experience of others and our circumstances. When our attention is elsewhere at any time other than the present, we’ve forfeited the opportunity to experience the light in the moment.

Use your attention to listen to yourself, your surroundings, your family. We have the capacity to be open enough, via our breathing in every single moment, to hold space for that potential light, as well as our deepest resistances; to hold space for the ones who give to us freely, as well as the ones who seem to take from us. Each person in our lives is there to show us the way to our freedom. Sometimes the ways in which people seek acceptance are so confusing; in the face of such moments it is our work to breathe, and through our breathing, soften more, and through that softening, listen well. Once we are listening we have access to our own freedom, as the openings, as the light.

Founder and co-owner of Virayoga in New York City, Elena Brower has been teaching yoga for 14+ years. After graduating from Cornell University in 1992 with a design degree, she worked in textile and apparel design for 6 years, living in both New York City and northern Italy. After completing a year studying Art Education at the New School and teaching art in two schools in downtown New York City, she trained with Cyndi Lee, subsequently met John Friend, and began studying Anusara. More than ten years of study with John Friend, Douglas Brooks and Hugo Cory led her to the Handel Group™, with whom Elena collaborates to bring practical, day-to-day relevance to the yoga.

This article was originally posted here. Reposted with permission.