Gossip gloss…embracing our shadow self

I will share with you a guilty pleasure of mine…I have been addicted to the latest season of Gossip Girl the past few days. A bad chest infection will do that to you, resign you to the couch. This is actually a nice thing to be resigned to every now and then. What’s more, a bit of a novelty. Rest is essential for all people. In the western world, we are far from allowing ourselves enough of it. One of my favourite yoga positions is Donna Farhi’s constructive rest and one I often give out for homework to my students. Being still isn’t easy to be seduced by, but with practice it becomes as seductive as seeing Chuck Bass J

So rest and trash do go hand In hand I’m told. I recall many a time when I would open my NW only to receive scornful eyes from those around me. Someone’s trash is another’s treasure. However, gloss is simply that. A shiny exterior used to hold something in and often keep something out.  In the case of NW it is to make the gossip and the lifestyle contained within its pages appear to be a certain way, to attract the naïve and impressionable. But to be able to take a step back, having a sense of detachment, you can begin to see it for what it truly is. And what’s more, to enjoy it even more.  

Life is about balance. I was telling my students this morning to integrate and even embrace all parts of themselves, rather than wishing to sweep any of these under the carpet.  Because really what we see as ugly in another is often an aspect of ourselves merely being mirrored back.  So daydreaming about Hollywood lifestyles was something that definitely held a certain allure for me. I feel now that I have been given a gift in being able to step away from that, rather than being drawn into a delusion. I now don’t read NW religiously, but do have a giggle at it as I peruse its pages on a not so regular basis. And as for Gossip Girl, I realised after being intoxicated by it for a few hours yesterday, that it does tend to go in circles at times. There are pearls within it, some great writing and poignant moments.  However, the saccharine nature of it does need to be balanced with something else. For me its planning a trip to the Big Apple for real. Not hoping to adopt a Hollywood lifestyle, but rather to extend myself. Fly into the wintry days of New York, be seduced by breakfast at Tiffany’s whilst remembering who I am. A woman learning to let go, to breathe and be courageous. xoxo to that