What to do when the Universe gives you a big ole SH!Tburger

Hey there sweet friend. How are you doing? If I could be with you, I’d open up my best bottle of cab and sit down with you on my couch and have some real talk.

So, c’mon over and let’s be together. I hope you and your loved ones are safe. I’m sending you love.

I’ve been waking up every morning at 3am, thinking about you and how I serve you now.

I like to think of myself more as a messenger, rather than teacher.

I’m called to whole-heartedly share my experiences and what I learn from others in the hope that you can relate to the lesson to heal parts of your life.

Maybe it’s because when I was lost, I was searching for an honest voice to bring me home. I hope I can be that for you, friend.

Collectively, we are suffering and experiencing a crisis through this pandemic. We feel alone, fearful, worried.

My dad always said, “never let a crisis go to waste.”

Each of us have gone through rough times. No one is free from suffering.

 

I’ve experienced some crap too:

• Left a marriage and a prosperous life in Silicon Valley I had worked so hard to get and spent half a decade figuring out who I wanted to be
• had a miscarriage and a cancer scare in 2017
• my dad passed away in 2018, just two-weeks before my daughter was born (still working through that grief)

 

When I’m in turmoil and I can’t figure out why God just made me a shitburger, I come back to this poem, The Guest House by Rumi:

 

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

 

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

 

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

 

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

 

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

In the poem, The Guest House, Rumi shows us that the entirety of human experience is valuable. None of it is to be discounted as unnecessary or even avoidable.

Life can be messy.

Although we would rather only experience positive situations and have good feelings, it’s important to welcome all circumstances and feelings, even sadness, anger, shame, guilt and loneliness into our house.

Each guest has something to offer.

Each feeling and experience is a portal to new awareness.

Accepting each state is accepting the entirety of your being, so you can heal your broken parts and bring you back to wholeness.

When you can stay open to the lesson each guest has to offer, you can learn from each guest, as they each bring a gift to heal, expand, grow and evolve your soul.

Currently, we, like most of the world are experiencing shelter-in-place, which makes this lonely time of not being able to socialize even more taxing. Unlike 9/11 or the 2008 financial crisis, we could at least be out in the sunshine living our normal life, eating our favorite bowl of parpadelle pasta Bolognese, sipping on our favorite Brunello, at our favorite restaurant with our favorite people, enjoying our customary life of hugging and laughing with our friends without sitting 6ft away wearing a medical mask.

Solitary confinement – this is what some countries do to prisoners! We are imprisoned to our home. GULP!

No one wants to be experiencing this. But THIS is what we’re experiencing. This is the guest that’s in our house now.

Reflecting on Rumi’s poem, each guest brings a gift. What is the gift in our circumstance?

We complain about being too busy and not having enough time to do self-care, take a bath, journal, start a meditation practice or a new hobby, spring clean our pantry, read a book (an actual book and feel the pages on your fingers), finish the scrapbook you started last year, write a letter or call loved ones who have been on your to-do list for months (eh-hem, years).

Although unwanted, perhaps this experience is showing up at the right time to give you your sacred retreat for quiet time, personal care and inner reflection.

I mean, we pay for these types of experiences, albeit it we’re not in a tropical thatched roof bungalow overlooking the ocean and palm trees with sun kissed skin and sandy straw beach hair (God, Audrey, why’d you have to go there!).

We do pay for or desire a retreat experience where we can unplug from our devices and the minutia of our busy lives, be alone so we can get quiet, rest and take care of ourselves.

I’m viewing this time as the Universe not punishing us, but as extra time for healing and reflection asking you:

 

how do you want to show up?

 

How do you want to transform during this shelter time?

We can’t control the virus, but we can control ourselves and how we want to show up now.

Along with our negative guests teaching us lessons, I’ve also received hundreds of other guests that have arrived these past few weeks to lift me up and support me through comments on my blog and social media, texts, emails and words of wisdom to teach me that we are not alone.

I love seeing you on IG in my yoga classes every day, youtube and connecting with you online! You are not alone in our struggles.

We are deeply seeking connection. Although connection looks differently, we are connected!

I have been waking up every day at 4am, crazily jotting down ways to serve you. I would love to hear from you, please of what you need now. Even if I can’t create it, I’d love to be that messenger to help lead you to someone who can.

To help support you during this time, please head to my new website: www.audreysuttonmills.com for freebies and resources to help you during these times:

• free yoga on my youtube channel and every day on IG live at noon PST through April 1st
• a guide to start a meditation practice + guided meditation
• 3 ways to curate calm podcast episode
• 52-week self-love journal
• intention card
• sign up for my 10-day self-love challenge happening April 1st.

Also, my ALWAYS ENOUGH course to help you rise from scarcity to hope, discounted for just $6 and 100% goes to making masks to protect our medical warriors who protect us.

I’m sure I’ll be adding more during this time together.

Thank you for your support and love! I am blessed.

I’m learning that when I give from my deepest self, I learn more about myself. That learning is the gift. And when you can learn more about yourself, that gift is also my gift. So, the giving, really, is the gift.

Please let me know what you need, what you’re struggling with and how I can create tools for you to support you now. I love you