Empty Nest Syndrome-The Art of Letting Go

Katrina April 16, 2011

Namaste friends!

I miss our teacher training students! What an amazing group they were. On April 9th, eight of the most dedicated and talented individuals received their hard earned teaching certificates after completing our nine week intensive course. But now Lisa and I are feeling like the parents of high school graduates. Our extended family has spread their wings an flown away to continue on their dharmic path; to share their new found knowledge; to create new beginnings. Each of these amazing yogis are gifted in the art of teaching, loving, and nurturing. Wherever they decide to hang their shingle, that community will receive heartfelt yoga. We proudly send them off with much love and affection.

But enough of them. Back to Lisa and I. We are sad! We are having to learn the art of letting go of attachment. We became very connected to each of them, and in some ways they became “ours”. Not in the obessive/compulsive kind of way. We all became so close, which is what happens when you eat, breath, sleep yoga intensely for nine weeks, that our lives became one. So when they graduated, we lost “our” way of life. And change is challenging. We get into routines. We get use to a way to doings things. It becomes comfortable and familiar. And then when that is uprooted suddenly, we can feel lost, scattered, or disoriented. That’s when the art of letting go becomes an important practice. We have to remind ourselves we aren’t our things. We aren’t our jobs. We aren’t the people in our lives. We are a reflection of those things. Which is why it is important to surround ourselves with positive things, work the jobs we love, and hang with good people. But we are really spirit beings full of light and love and it is important not to lose sight of that by attaching too strongly to any one person, place, or thing.

Change is inevitable. Like the old adage says, “The only constant is change”. In our practice of yoga, we work on being flexible, not just in our hamstrings, but in our mind and heart. Things come into our life for a reason. But they also move out for a reason too. It is a service to ourselves if we learn to accept the changes with grace and openess because around the corner is a new venture waiting to be discovered.

Lisa and I are sad to see our students go for sure. And I jest about how much grief we feel in their departure (pretty sad though). But I use graduation as an example to all of us as a reminder to stay flexible to change, accept the comings and goings of life, and know that every day brings new adventure. In this season of transformation, where blossoms our opening, and baby birds are hatching, the weather is warming, we are reminded of rebirth and renewel. That new beginnings are as perennial as the grass. Closure is only one aspect of new beginnings.