Well, I am almost surrounded by things halfway done for my trip to India (I leave on Monday), but I’m nevertheless taking a break for reflection, because sometimes it’s important to do that and especially now, because my life itself is also halfway done! It feels like a hugely significant time – both for me in my own life and for the period that is just beginning for humanity. 

Sadhguru says that if you live for eighty-four years and three months, you would have completed seven solar cycles and one-thousand-and-eight lunar cycles. If you do this, then you can break a certain bond with the earth. Very easily, with very little assistance, you can go beyond the cycles of birth and death.

So, in yogic terms, I became officially middle-aged with my birthday yesterday! It’s funny because one of the quotes I remember most from the teacher training was Sadhguru saying “Where is the other half?! You are not half a life. You are a complete piece of life.” So, I am aware that I have everything within me that’s needed to attain to the ultimate, and I simply have to find access to them, and learn how to use them properly. The practices Sadhguru teaches are definitely taking me in that direction.

At the same time, my life could be roughly half-lived, though, of course, you never know when you are going to die! But the idea that I could be halfway there makes me stop and think about what I have done, where I am going, and what work still needs to be done.

So, for the AdiYogi consecration Sadhguru’s going to do this Mahashivarathri to take place when I am 42 seems like an enormous blessing for me. What a gift, what an opportunity! He also says that the next 12 years are going to be full of bounty. I can only imagine the impact of the AdiYogi’s presence, once its energy is unleashed!

I have a small consecrated AdiYogi in my home, and it’s a very powerful presence, although it’s only one foot high. I can only imagine the reverberations from a face 112 feet tall! Sadhguru says:

Nearly everyone who knows me remarks that there’s something different about me, because I do yoga. Most of them say they would like to have what I have. And yet, only a tiny percentage actually make it to a programme. I often wonder what it is that’s holding people from back from reaching out for something they recognise   as valuable, that’s accessible to all. Today I had an insight. 

Today I finally gave in to pressure to update my mobile phone. My old one had served me very well. It had done everything I needed it to, which, honestly wasn’t very much. But nowadays, there are people for whom email, land line, mobile, Skype, Facebook and Twitter are not enough. Unless you have WhatsApp, they won’t speak to you! And my bank now won’t allow me to make transfers from home unless I have a Smart Phone. I’d also recognised that certain apps could save me a lot of time and energy. So, I went into the phone shop, SIM card in hand, and asked them to cut it. It needed trimming to fit the new phone.

As they cut it, I had a moment of trepidation. That was the moment of no return. You can’t have 2 SIM cards for the same phone number. Once my SIM was cut, I couldn’t back out and reinsert it into my old phone.  What if I couldn’t learn how to use it in time for my 5am alarm call? What if I needed to contact someone urgently, before I’d had the chance to learn my way round? [This did happen!] Would I have to relearn everything that had been automatic, and would it be worth it? 

There are actually many analogies with starting yoga. Yoga is a science, a profound technology, which allows us to access things that can seem like sci-fi when you don’t understand them. It opens up a whole new world, which is wide open. Boundless, full of infinite possibilities. But what if you like the safety of the handrail, and don’t feel ready to step into the unknown? 

When you start proper yoga, it reshapes you in a subtle way, so that you simply don’t fit into your old habits – or they don’t fit you. You become able to release yourself from so many things that bind you – likes and dislikes, limitations and fossilized behaviours. This is liberating. It allows space for something new and wonderful to take shape, to blossom within you. 

But it can also be a little daunting. And I think people sense that. It’s that that stops them taking the step they know they desire.

The thing is that at every stage of our growth, we have to leave behind what we perceive as security if we want to find freedom.   How else would a baby stop crawling on the ground and walk upright? I remember the time my nephew first learnt to jump! Even   a small jump from a single step took a lot of bravery. 

When we’re children, we have our parents to encourage us, and to promote our development. But once we become adults, there are so few people around us who have taken the next step that it seems “normal” just to stop growing. Once we have sufficient know-how     to deal with the fundamentals of survival – getting enough resources to eat, sleep in shelter and clothe ourselves, we stop looking for more demanding needs, like finding fulfilment. Instead, we settle   for fleeting pleasure, entertainment and distractions.