The basement was full of brown, crumpled cardboard moving boxes (some recent, some from my past life), a rocking horse calling out my oldest son’s childhood, yearbooks and awards since junior high from all of us, a kindergarten graduation cap, worn out furniture, old pictures, old lamps needing a new home—you get the picture.

It’s time for all of it to go on to its next journey—just like I have.

I put the key in the front door lock. It’s just as sticky and hard to turn as it has been for the past five years. As usual, with some muscle, I push the front door open to overcome the shifts that have happened over the years.

The sticky door is a metaphor for the work I did in that house, or “my cocoon.” Sometimes slow, sticky and icky, but well worth the effort and so appropriate to birth the woman called “me.”

With the beautiful help and support of my groom, we entered my “old” home that sunny, crisp spring afternoon to walk the final journey of closing that chapter of my life so we could officially begin our new chapter together. We were almost there, except for the last few items and memories that I was ready to let go of physically, mentally and emotionally.

It’s been a year of magical beginnings and challenging ends.

The year of my “Big, Fat Root Chakra Cleanse.”

The root chakra is about health, relationships, finances, our home. Everywhere I looked, one door was rapidly opening while another door involving relationships, houses and businesses, was rapidly closing.

Here I am again at 55, trusting, allowing, accepting and letting go to the divine journey called my life.

Sa Ta Na Ma—the cycle of life as it always is.

I feel like I’ve been in a constant state of cleansing, releasing, moving, creating and birthing these past 12 months. And I wouldn’t change a thing.

In August 2015, Jupiter went into Virgo, my sign, stating that it would be a big year for us Virgos. Big and fast in all ways.

(Jupiter, being the planet of “expansion,” helps everything along whether you want it or not.)

And my practice of yoga is working precisely. It is, after all, a practice of purification. In the beginning, no one told me that it was going to help me purify on all levels.

When it’s time to evolve it’s going to happen.

When things aren’t in alignment they have to change, and they will.

Embracing and accepting our evolution is the key.

Just when you think you’ve done your karmic soul work, the next layer arrives. We can choose to do the work or stay at the current level of awareness until we’re ready.

Bottom line, we’re on an adventure and it’s all good.

When we first get on a yoga mat, we are often looking around the room and outside ourselves for direction, connection and affirmation. Soon we learn it’s our own journey, an inside journey to self awareness, learning, healing, growth and eventually, our awakening.

What we do on the mat, on our meditation cushion, or chanting mantra isn’t the yoga, it’s what gets us there. These are the technologies to help us get to the yoga or union with our higher Self.

We have to show up for ourselves first, do the work and become the person we’re capable of being. No yoga teacher, (or anything or anyone else outside of us) can do it for us. Not even Google.

Our body, nervous system and subconscious are the boxes in the “basement” holding our stuff. The postures, chanting, mantra and meditation help us sort through our “belongings” and clear out those sticky, icky, worn out and stuck memories/patterns in our way.

With Grace and our practice, we begin trusting, allowing, accepting and letting go more and more to the divine journey called our life.

It’s all good.

Relephant:

108 Ways to Heal Your Chakras.

Author: Katherine Austin

Apprentice Editor: Brandie Smith/Editor: Emily Bartran

Photo: Donnie Nunley/Flickr