Occupy Within

From the newsletter of a great teacher,Christian de la Huerta-

Too many of us walk around in a state of disembodied exile, stuck in our heads, ignoring the wisdom of our bodies, with closed hearts. We have allowed our hearts to shut down out of anger, self-righteousness and resentment, out of fear that we might get hurt again. Holding on to old injuries and betrayals, what a price we pay for getting to be right or feel victimized, for getting to punish others and cast them out of our hearts! The thing is we can’t close our hearts selectively. When we banish anyone from our hearts we in effect keep ourselves in exile.


Too many of us live in a constant state of distraction: infomaniacs jonesing for that next hit of breaking news, that next Facebook post, that next tweet. Our tweaked out, ADD culture fuels our overstimulated minds which remain in a heightened state of constant hyper awareness while we multitask, put out fires all day long, handle the next crisis. Exhausted, we then self-medicate with TV, shopping, food, sex or drugs, but that only provides momentary relief, not real rest, and certainly does not solve any problems. At some point adrenalin junkies gotta pay the piper!


We need to reconnect with our bodies, with our sense of knowing and intuition, with our sense of belonging to and being part of the cosmos. In a sense that is our return to Eden.


Within...that’s where all the answers to all our questions lie. There we will find the key to freedom. Within is where power lies, where peace can be found. It is where we discover our purpose.


A recent article in the Harvard Business review identified meditation and intuition as the main tools of the 21st century leader. Whether you employ formal meditation practice, breathwork, prayer, spending time alone in nature or any other means, turn within!


For those of us in northern regions, this is the time of the year to turn within anyway, as shorter days are made more dramatic by the artificial time change.

So by all means, let’s peacefully occupy Wall Street and Oakland and wherever else in what Al Gore called a “primal scream of democracy.”



But more importantly, let’s Occupy Within.