Meet Bigness with Bigness

When faced with big challenges, it’s easy for our bodies to contract, to tense—to brace for what is coming towards us.   I notice this impulse in my Aikido practice.  My opponent comes towards me with a strike, and my body wants to brace and contract.  Yesterday, in one of these moments, I heard the words, “Use the sky as your ally.”  Instead of contracting to meet my opponent, I expanded past him, up and out, pulling energy from the space above me.  My movement was filled with power and decisive.  When faced with big challenges, resist the impulse to curl up into a ball.  Reach for the sky and meet bigness with bigness.
Take a breath. On your inhale expand your energy up and out, reaching for the sky.  And on your exhale, see that slowly circling ribbon of light move through you, into your feet and into the earth.  Find your ground.  And reach for the sky.  Ask yourself the question, “What would it be like if there were just a little more expansion in my being in this moment?”