Politics! The scary “P” word.

Recently, I listened to an interview with spiritual teacher, and author Marianne Williamson. She was discussing her new project called Sister Giant. It's a call to women of all ages. Marianne is inviting women to become more politically aware, educated and involved. As empowered women we are being asked to look globally at what ails the planet politically, and how collectively we truly can make a difference. She's asking women to go deeper than ever before.

I love the way Marianne Williamson speaks, the strength of her voice, her passion, and her eloquence. Yet, as I listened to her I felt myself contracting. With each clear statement, and latest statistic my stomach clenched tighter and tighter. “What's going on?” I wondered? “Why am I feeling anxious?” I've been reading Marianne Williamson's books for years. I have deep respect for her work, and I appreciate her “tell it like it is approach.” So, why was I feeling a bit put off?

When I sat with it later, in the solitude of my heart, clarity began to take shape. It wasn't Ms. Williamson I was recoiling from, it was her topic. I don't like politics. I'm a yoga and meditation teacher, a mentor to very smart women who still feel insecure in some area of their life. As clarity crystalized I became aware that much like the women I mentor and teach, I feel insecure in the platform of politics. I can do the superficial, but I don't feel confident entering into a fierce debate on the wall street bail out, the electoral vote, economics, foreign policy, or... you can fill in the blank. And, as I hear from many of the women that work with me, the secret they share, is neither do they.

I grew up in a household with three brothers, and felt awful when they fought. So, I became the designated peace maker. I don't enjoy engaging in a world I perceive as overly masculine, harsh, and even corrupt. My expertise lies not only in the physical practice of yoga, but the inner realms; like the landscape of the mind and heart, the work of contemplation, meditation, depth psychology, dream interpretation, self-transformation, and self-empowerment. If you ask me how to tap into your authentic self, the difference in Tantra meditation techniques, or how to execute a challenging pose, I'm all over it. But politics, well no, it remains a far off foreign territory with militia men guarding the borders, and me standing without a passport at the point of entry.

Thus, I do what I teach others to do. I invite in yet a deeper level of awareness, and I continue my yoga practices. I sit with my contraction, I feel into it, I contemplate it, and I ask the truth that is mine to arise. And here's what's bubbling to the surface, that no matter the “side” I align with it's imperative that I commit to doing my inner work in all of the places that unease creeps in. That I get uncomfortable enough to commit to uncovering what has kept me from diving deeply into this dark scary world of politics. So, I take another deep breath, and delve even further unde
eath my fear.

Then I re-surface, and I educate myself.