“What I do for one, I do for the other.”
In An Accidental Awakening, I share the affirmation that peaked my interest during our root chakra inquiries that year.
This was a new concept to me at the time: that I was an extension of the earth and what I did for her, I also did for me, and vice versa.
Through the practices of my year in yoga that year, my back pain from a long-time lumbar spinal injury all but disappeared. 6 years after that year, however, I experienced a second spinal injury: this time, my cervical spine.
It was like starting over. But none of my previous practices afforded me relief. I had to level-up. But not before I dove way down.
For nearly 4 years, pain has been a constant companion… and my greatest teacher. One of its lessons is to let go of what really doesn’t matter. Another lesson is to both challenge what the body is saying, while deeply listening to its messages. But what if its messages are deeper than me?
In his book, The Re-Enchantment, Hank Wesselman writes about Sophia, the Gnostic Goddess and the Soul of the World: the one who dreamed us each into being. He tells of how she has been forgotten, and how she suffers because humanity is asleep and abusing her world.
As I sat this morning, in Butterfly Meditation from my Spring Forest Qigong practice, it dawned on me that my pain is her pain. And as I directed each breath, each ray of light into my lower dantien, releasing the excess energy and pain as butterflies, I did this too for Sophia.
The earth is in pain. She is suffering. Our suffering is entwined: humanity’s, nature’s and hers. We have the opportunity to include the soul of the world in every healing practice we undertake: a salt bath, a massage, meditation, yoga, a deep breath of fresh air, a hug from a loved one, medicines we take and treatments we undergo.
When we practice in this way, we remember Sophia, the Soul of the World, and we realize our full potential as healers.
Because what we do for one, we do for the other.
Stephanie Hrehirchuk - Author 