On Becoming Whole

I'm teaching a workshop called, "Yoga and the Creative Heart," in which we use yoga practices (yoga poses, meditation, breath, affirmations, chant and self-exploration) to identify and remove obstacles to manifesting our creative dreams and open ourselves to creative inspiration.

During our guided meditation this past week, I invited the students to offer up the open ended question/statement, "I am..." and allow for inner or divine guidance to respond. When the meditation ended, I asked them to write down anything that came up during the meditation that was interesting, helpful or surprising.

One woman, a widow in her 70's, told us that only one word had come to her in response to "I am...", and that word was "whole."

I am whole.

She talked about how, for most of her life, she was always a "part" of something - a couple, a family and so on, that made her whole. But most of those things she was a part of are in the past, and she realized that she now feels whole in herself.

We all thought this was a beautiful and interesting insight, and I found myself thinking about it later on.

Throughout our lives, we are part of many things: a family, a school, a club, a church, a community, a workplace, a partnership, a relationship and so on. So to a large degree, we tend to define ourselves in that way - a mother, a wife, an accountant, a writer, an Episcopalian, an American, a yoga teacher...a player among other players in the movies of our lives, collectively forming a whole made from separate parts.

But then, at some point, all of the things we have been a part of become incorporated into the totality of who we are, until, rather than we being a part of them, they become a part of us. The separation between ourselves and our experiences and relationships and roles is erased, and they are forever in us and part of us, fully and completely integrated.

We are whole.

Then, even if a situation changes or ends, all of what we are and were and experienced and felt and loved is in us, part of us, and we remain whole.