Recent news of Kate Spade’s suicide and our responsibility to one another

I’m struggling with the recent news of talented accessories designer, Kate Spade’s suicide. I’m definitely not a fashionista, but in college my first brand name bag was a little red Kate Spade handbag, and I’ve always admired the watercolor artwork she uses in her branding.

When anyone passes away in the limelight it sets a ripple effect to an entire population reminding us of how fragile life is and how there are people around us that are truly suffering. I believe it is not in our place to judge the struggles each one of us is going through. Everyone has struggles. It’s how we take them on—it’s how we let them flow through our being—it’s how we relate to them…that makes us the people we are.

We live such busy lives with so many distractions it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the empathy we hold for other people’s struggles. On the other side it is hard to share our own struggles with people and let people in. We all walk around with these invisible barriers. Yoga is a practice that tries to build the body, mind and heart stronger while opening the heart to empathize and connect with others.

Two years ago, I was going through one of those big struggles in my life, and I told as little people as possible. I didn’t even tell my parents for a month until it escalated. My struggles were in my relationship as I found out I was pregnant. That relationship is now over…the struggle was real. I didn’t want to burden people with my issues. My practice of yoga helped me to remain strong inside—where it counted—with my baby, but I still struggled to let people really see me. I had the best distraction in the world. When people would ask me how I was doing, I would talk about the pregnancy. We do that I believe—distract others from the truth. How many people respond with how busy they are at work when asked how they are these days? Yes, but what is happening one layer down. How does that busyness feel?

Hope

My hope is while we let the news of Kate Spade’s suicide flow through our consciousness we take this moment to open our eyes. To ask the follow up question to that “busy” answer and ask how that busyness really feels, and take this opportunity to truly connect with one another. We are not here to help people with their struggles, but we are here together to support one another.

Open your eyes. Open your heart.

 

This blog post was originally posted on the Heart Center Collective.

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