Using Both of Your Wings

Sometimes when you hear something, it just rings true. I’ve been thinking about something I heard this week, and I wonder if it rings true for you too. We hear so much about people caught up in a specific worldview, something we often refer to as a “wing.” For example, those who are “right wing” are conservative and those who are “left wing” are liberal. What if, instead of being devoted to one wing, we decided to be the whole butterfly and used both of our wings?

This image really makes sense to me because, in nature, a butterfly cannot fly with just one wing. A bird cannot fly with just one wing. Even an airplane cannot fly with just one wing.

Why do we think that we are any different?

If we think we can fly with just one wing, with just one understanding, with just one unopposed commitment, we are deluding ourselves and helping to create the situation we currently find ourselves in now where divisiveness and misunderstanding rule the day.

To use both wings means
• Actively seeking out opposing views to get the bird’s eye view of any issue
• Imagining yourself being in a different life situation to consider how your actions, thoughts and beliefs would be shaped accordingly
• Representing the beautiful colors of humanity (just like the whole butterfly) rather than the broken body of a being that cannot reach its full potential

Here are two Yoga practices that can support your efforts to be whole:
Practice a yoga pose you don’t like for 30 days in a row. This practice helps you overcome your negative feelings to something by consciously choosing to engage with it every single day. Over time you will discover that you actually begin to like the pose and, if you stick with it a bit longer, you’ll likely become indifferent to it. Once that happens, you are free.

Meditate on shape-shifting. In your imagination you get to be anything you want to be. Choose something from nature such as your companion animal or a favorite tree. Close your eyes and imagine this being in front of you. Switch places with this being, imagining that you are observing yourself through its eyes. What does it see when it looks at you? When you return to your own body, reflect on what you learned.