Keep calm and carry on. Hmmm...maybe it should be the other way around.

Though I do like the phrase “Keep calm and carry on”, I wonder if calm is the consequence of carrying on correctly, not the means to carry on. Lately I’ve been noticing that as a culture we’ve conflated goals and consequences and methods. I’m wondering if we’ve been misplacing testimonials for instructions? Take for example Patanjali’s Yoga sutras, often referred to as ‘The Bible of Yoga’.

Many think of the sutras as a guidebook for yogis, with instructions for the means to Self realization, realization of divinity, and the benefits of these realizations. Lately I’m considering the sutras to be more like a testimonial. Like, “here’s what might happen if you do the practice - you’ll quell suffering & gain (some) self realization (and maybe mystical abilities... but at this point in human history, we’re just working on not being chronically depressed, anxious, and up in arms. Mystical abilities seem a bit extreme from this vantage point!)”. There’s VERY little instruction having to do with the body other than we ought to keep it pure (the Niyama, Saucha) and that the posture should be stable and at ease (sutra 2.46). The sutras delineate the states of being that cause suffering, not what causes those states of being, a much more variable list! However, lately anyhow, I’m seeing the choices that beget the causes of suffering whittling down, at their core, to two things; entropy and chaos, which, for humans at least, are inevitable - unless we prevent them.

Look at your kitchen, your desk, or your closet. If you don’t actively participate in keeping them tidy, what happens? Within the time of one meal worth cooking your kitchen could be a disaster. Fail to clean up after and continue to prepare meals, soon you won’t be able to prepare a meal because of the utter chaos. Guess what? We are the same. Our bodies, our minds and our spirits (!) are the same, just slower to show the signs.

Most of us are born rather unafflicted, but, unattended to, within fifteen years many will have developed the subtle (or not subtle) onset of psychosis like depression and anxiety, physical obstacles, and will have lost the innate mystical connection to divinity that all babies are born with. Let ourselves go, unattended for decades and what happens? Degradation of the acuity of the mind, the bodily systems and an absolute tether to the troubles of the world completely ignorant to the mystical divine underpinning that is always prevailing. That’s what happens. Rare is the person who can ignore their well-being on the three main levels - body mind and spirit - and stay well on the three main levels.

Unlike nature, which self-organizes in harmony with entropy, constantly reestablishing homeostasis, even within chaos, we humans can often fail to get ahead of the inevitable chaos with tools, strategies, lifestyles and practices that yield our ability to keep calm. How do we gain those tools? (Hint, not IG reels, Tik Tok shorts or YouTube videos). We connect. Internally, quietly, and with intention through the regenerative practices of meditation we connect to our core essences. Paving connection through breathing practices, (for, breath is life, is prana – energy!), and, augmented by correct healthy physical practices (asana). Then everything else will (better) organize to adapt to the inevitability of entropy and stave off (a good deal of) chaos. Then we will be lead to the other strategies, choices, resources, people etcetera, to help us self-organize to this life; to aging, to relationships, to grieving, and all the opportunities + challenges living entails. Then we live in our dharmic purpose.

Can it be the other way around? Yes! The formula isn’t unilateral. It’s the individual journey to discern the formula, day to day. But... no discernment? No Self study? No inquiry? No practices? Well, don’t be surprised by the chaos of torrential emotions, premature and dramatic decay of the body and mind, and the lack of natural luster from no connection to what is divine and mystical. Those byproducts are consequences!

Calm is also a consequence. Calm is the fertilizer that bears the fruit of health. Calm is the predecessor of naturally occurring emotional intelligence and resilience. Calm is the spring that offers the flow of divine connection, innately, not because of taught ideas, but because of felt experiences. Calm is the result of an accumulation which requires daily input. Perhaps it is in the carrying on of our nourishing self care practices that we get to taste the calm. So we can, in life, carry on with the metaphorical chopping wood and carrying water, calmly. Maybe I was wrong. It’s not the other way around, it’s just round and round. A cycle, a wheel that turns us towards our evolution, as is the way in nature. So, carry on, keep calm, and carry on.