This week I had two dreams with Barack Obama in them. In the first dream, Obama has appointed me as White House yoga teacher. (By the way, I love this idea!) In the dream I was honored that I was chosen to do such important work, and though I was a bit intimidated, I remember mostly feeling very at home, like it was the most natural thing I could do.
In the second dream I’m in the oval office just hanging out with Barack (with all that yoga we’ve become friends I guess!). He begins flirting with me, and I’m thinking, “this can’t be happening.” Suddenly, he leans over and kisses me sweetly on the neck. Though I feel honored and I’m definitely interested, I don’t respond. I stand there stiffly as the thought goes through my head, “as nice as this feels now, this is going to wreak all sorts of havoc in my life.”
The power and beauty of dreams is that they’re very rarely taken literally. In my dreams-not unlike in reality-Obama represents the part of me who unabashedly creates and lives from unity consciousness and the energy of hope, and who promotes and lives the extraordinary change and transformation inspired by both.
If you open yourself to the election’s residual inspiration and opportunity to change, if you align yourself with the consciousness that you can create anything and that you are part of something much bigger than you can imagine, then you will find that we are all being appointed to serve from the deepest parts of ourselves in the highest possible way. Like my first dream, it’s an invitation that is both naturally simple and exceptionally daunting to accept. And no matter how alluring the flirting with or sweet the touch of these powerful and visionary parts of ourselves is, we do tend to just stand there stiffly, not quite knowing what to do with our interest.
The truth is, leaning into that part of yourself will create havoc in your life. It will destroy the status quo. But I think back to election night; the moment of collective release when we all knew that change was happening. As I and everyone I was with began to cry, I was astonished by how much I (we) had been holding that suddenly released, by how this nameless, massive weight energetically and spontaneously just slipped away.
Change necessitates release. We think that the letting go will be painful, and sometimes it is. But sometimes the release, not unlike election night, is simply the silent elation of acknowledging all that can be actualized with our new-found lightness.
As we come upon a new year, a time when many of us vow to change in ways that bring us more in alignment with our highest selves, I invite you to use the last month of this year to release what makes you feel burdened. You don’t even have to name what it is, just continue to give yourself opportunities to feel what it feels like to be lighter. The more you can identify the feeling of lightness, the more you’ll want it, and the more it will begin to naturally occur. And when that happens, forward movement and change become unimpeded.
