Written by Katherine Dreyer, Co-Founder of ChiRunning & ChiWalking
Founder of ChiLife Coaching
A meditation teacher once told me that the people of India’s spirituality ran deep and that their next step in their evolution is to move that depth of being into action, coming from that profound source.
Westerners’ next evolutionary step, she said, is to tap more deeply into being, into our presence and not “do,” “act,” and “move forward” so quickly.
Traveling in India for a month, with Master ChiRunning Instructor, Colonel Avdesh Kumar***, showed me and Danny how this shift is happening in India. The deep, ancient spirituality that is their inheritance is the foundation of how they think, work, and create community.
The enormous sculptures of hands in the arrival area of Delhi airport, each illustrating different mudras—hand positions used in meditation—serve as one example of this cultural inheritance. The captivating sculptures of yoga poses, or asanas, in the departing area of the airport offer another.
Whether you are arriving or leaving Delhi you are reminded of these inner practices that can help guide you on your journey.
The trip made me reflect on when it’s best to just be, when to allow and accept, and when to take action and move forward.
The truest action is when we know there is no other choice, when our next step is as clear and assured as a cat stalking its prey.
In ChiRunning and ChiWalking and in T’ai Chi it is called Y’ Chi. This is when your vision, your heart and your body mind are all in unison in your forward movement.
Sometimes life doesn’t give us a choice. Injury or illness stops our forward movement. During the trip, some health issues slowed me down. They made me stop, rest, and reassess. I had no choice.
Likewise, the demands of family, work or the holiday season seem to require certain actions.
We can lament the injury or the pressures that keep us so busy, or, we can settle into our being, into awareness and acceptance, into the reality of the moment, where there is so much to feel, learn, and experience. Something new can arise from that place: understanding, self- compassion, a perspective not seen before.
The sculptures in Delhi airport are not in our homes, cars, and offices to remind us, so we need to remind ourselves…
There is more going on under the surface than meets the eye!!
And when we touch into those deep places, we include the most important part of ourselves in our next step forward.
It will likely differ from what the mind thinks.
Acceptance and welcoming the present moment exactly as it is is how life teaches us something new. The mind likes us to believe we already know.
Acceptance transforms into understanding, into deep knowing, into a clear path forward.
Don’t just take the next step. First, feel into your life as it is. Let it sink in with gratitude, with self- forgiveness, and let that experience lead you into action.
ChiLife Coaching adapts the principles used in ChiRunning and ChiWalking to bring positive change to your whole life.