On Being Transparent

Something of an epiphany came when someone spoke of our connection to God through each other recently. I heard this often at Sunday school growing up and every day at the ashram was reminded of the divinity of each human around (the bathroom signs read "Blessed Self please do not flush large objects down the toilet..."). But a new light has been shed on the subject for me. This is a common belief among many religious and spiritual circles. And I do believe it's true. Relationships are meant to expose us to the incredible amount of love and support that exists for us in this life. However...they don't always do that-do they?

No-instead we often end up with enemies that used to be friends, ex-lovers we used to swoon over, even family members we suffer through on holidays only. When and why did these "opportunities to experience God", become experiences with our deepest, darkest fears often marred with shame, regret and intense propensities for being the "right" one in a falling out?

As I revealed in my an earlier post, I took an internship in NYC recently in order to expose myself to some new information, experiences and growth. I am now coming to a close on week three. It's been hard, exciting, tiring, rewarding...all of the things that "work" is. And I am learning a LOT. It is a PR/Social Media Marketing role and something I keep coming across in my training and research is TRANSPARENCY. Like in this article I read today (thanks for posting Linda). The jist is that the more we present what is what in our ever-more real-time world of information and news, the less "clean-up" we have to do later, the more people trust our company's information, and the more likely they will be to become a "fan" and customer.

So now how does this link back to yoga and more specifically the yoga of relationships? It seems that the more we as people are transparent with our intentions, with who we truly are, then others will respond in an authentic way as well. There is no mess to clean up later because everything was clean from the get-go. When we give up looking good and being right all of the time, we end up looking vulnerable, sometimes ugly, but all together and entirely HUMAN. And guess what? People like this BETTER than the fake, "I'm always fine and good and happy don't really need you or anybody else" attitude we tend to take on when feeling that vulnerability. (Or conversely the "I'm a victim and will just DIE if you don't like me" attitude). In other words, when someone is being REAL, no matter how hard that is or how hard their truth may be to swallow, it's always going to be more attractive than inauthenticity. We will always line up to be in front of people who are themselves. Why? Because when we drop the ego and drop the games, what is left is our true Self. What is left is God. And guess what? We LOVE to be in the omnipresent, ultra-accepting love and warmth of God.

Open up, drop the BS, and let your true light shine. And then be prepared for the increasing number of people who want to be around you. They want to bathe in that light.

Om shanti. Om peace.