Rumi: Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built.

In my experience, yogi's are well-skilled in being thankful. But, if you are like me, you have much more trouble letting the thanks IN. Have you ever tried thanking someone who wouldn't be thanked?

"Thank you."
Reply: "No trouble, anyone would have done the same."
"Maybe, but you took the time, and I appreciate it."
Reply: "It was no big deal."
"And yet it meant so much to me."
Reply: "No worries..."

Pretty soon you find yourself fighting with the person you're trying to thank. You want to say, "Here! This is my thanks to you, take it!" And you find yourself blocked. The flow of good feeling and relationship is stopped by a barrier.

We can see how stopped energy effects our bodies, and not in some esoteric way. When we move, mechanical energy needs to flow from our upper bodies to our lower bodies, from our arms to our legs, through our torsos. This happens when we walk, when we pick things up, and when we push or pull. When energy doesn't flow through this kinetic chain because of tight or weak muscles, we end up with back and neck pain. Our bodies aren't functioning properly and we suffer as a result of our inability to flow simple mechanical energy from one point to another.

My belief is that the subtle universe works the same way. All the good feelings and positive relationships that you want to create, all that outward energy needs to land somewhere. And yet, when are WE the ones who are unwilling to accept the energy flowing from others? When do we block the flow of others' deep-felt and genuine gratitude? When do we block this natural two-way flow of relationship, and through our ignorance seek to make it one-way?

And so on Thanksgiving Day at Sync Studio we practiced allowing ourselves to be thanked for all the wonderful things we do for others. We practiced softening those barriers which we have built that prevent simple thankfulness, which is just another way of saying love, from flowing between us and others. In doing so, we restored the two-way flow of energy between us in that room, and practiced the skill of being open to others that we could then bring to our relationships around the table that day.

Thank you all who attended class with Amy and me on Thanksgiving. I find it amazing, how the Rumi quote seemed to have been actualized in the room. There was this really special feeling in the air, as 26 of us breathed and moved and let our gentle natures mingle.