Veronica's Truth

The essence of the wisdom Marianne Williamson conveyed when saying:
“You dismantle the darkness by invoking the light”
is timeless. It has been interwoven in all spiritual practices throughout the ages. However, what she said before that is a key part of what keeps many unable to release their suffering. She explained how societally we have a tendency to feel a need to analyze everything, including the cause of our suffering, but suffering does not go away merely by analyzing it. It is when we bring light into our life, that the suffering finally begins to have less and less room to exist. Hearing her explain it this way was a huge “A-ha” moment for me. We all suffer in different ways.

Sometimes you can easily observe someone's suffering by their outward expressions, others aren’t as easy to read. Like most people, I was one of the later. I appeared normal and happy, for the most part, but internally I was seething. There are few people that knew of this struggle, mostly because finding a safe place to share this wasn’t easy. Admitting something wasn’t right would have likely lead to questions. It’s human nature to want to make someone feel better when they are upset. The questions “What’s wrong?” , or “Why do you feel that way?” would have likely been asked. Knowing this, I tried to analyze the origin of this deep upset myself, but I had no answers. I spent over a decade from adolescence onward on a journey from self abuse, to self love. Intuitively the women of my family helped guide me on a life changing path towards yoga, and healing body work. I received gift certificates for both, and immediately knew there was something in each of these practices that reached me at a soul level. They both allowed me to witness a deep peace and stillness beyond the self negating dialogue that ran through my head. As the years passed, I found my way to many different healers, and yoga classes, each offering their own special gifts and wisdom, each one bringing me closer “ to my own true nature”, as one teacher would like to say. My yoga practice wasn’t always consistent. I would go through phases of regularly getting to the mat, and the more I would, the more at ease my life would appear. I could feel compassion being cultivated for myself and those around me. Then the hard lessons of life would roll through, and I would lose my footing. The beauty was that no matter how much time I spent away from the practice, it was always there to receive me when I was ready to come back.

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In the winter of 2016, ten years after my first yoga class, I felt I was finally ready to pursue the path of a yoga teacher. I searched different programs in the area, and asked those around me for their input. Coincidentally, Kundalini Yoga was being brought to my attention enough at that time, that I knew I needed to seek out a class. My first class engaged me on so many levels that I knew I had found the yogic path I wanted to continue on. After this class, my boss, friend, and intuitive sounding board, Jennifer Perry, text me the info afriend gave her about a Kundalini Teacher Training program that was coming to our area. I signed up, and since then the program has undoubtedly changed my life. It has taught me how important it is to commit.

When you commit to a spiritual path, it will invoke the light that is within you. Whatever your “Darkness” might be will be brought to light and released, and what will be left is peace, and pure love for those around you, and most importantly for yourself.

It is in developing this inner peace that we will begin to see peace in our homes which will spread into the rest of the world. I always say the reason that I travel this path is because I want to give the “Power to the people!”. I know it is not something I can actually give, but rather something I hope everyone will be able see for themselves by choosing to find a way to allow that light into their life. For me that path is yoga, for anyone else it may look very different. Ultimately you’ll know when it’s the right path for you because it will show you who you truly are, and displace the false story we tell ourselves about who we think we are. I believe that part of liberation and true prosperity is achieved by speaking and living your truth. I’m blessed to have this space here to share mine, and send you light on your path in finding and sharing yours.

Sat Nam,
Veronica Crites (Adi Shiva Kaur)

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