Your yoga practice is the gap between the business.

 

 I don’t often go to classes these days.. I find that for me a personal practice finds more juice for me.. it means I can go slow, take longer in the process and find a way to engage with the body or the mind. Some days I might have to hang upside down rocking on my feet till my over busy thinking mind takes a breath.. it sometimes takes longer and a bit more rocking to get there.. but the busy mind can settle.

 At the moment I am all ideas.. and this can come in the way of practice.. yes a mind is a wonderful thing for coming up with this way to experience the world however the business must have a break. If we are always on the go we are always one ramped up adrenalised world.. and that is not pretty, certainly not peaceful and just brings about so much wear and tear on the body and mind.

 So when I go to a class I look for ones that allow me to take stock, take a pause and a breath to engage with my body in ways I may have forgotten. For me Asana is not a gymnastics challenge but a reminder to us of what we can do with our bodies if we allow it..

 So yoga practice whether it is in a class or at home should be a pause between the pace of life.. if you find you are racing in your practice or your class.. and not find the gap between the busyness maybe its time to rethink the class..

 

Forced to slow down

I wonder who else is feeling the pinch a little financially? Business is slow, everything seems expensive.. the world seems tighter and constricted. Every day I remind myself that I am still here still working, still eating and still alive. My problems, as they like to say are first world problems.. if I don’t earn wonderful amounts of money what I miss out on aren’t the essentials.

But what does this give me? is there a gift in this experience? My less optimistic frame of mind will always look at ways to pull back to budget and to self flagellate about issues around spending? Should I have bought that coffee, sunhat, material? etc. But maybe I should view the long term and trust the impermanence. The story that I think is happening now isn’t the same story that we are going to experience tomorrow. Although sometimes they seem very familiar. Everything that happens now is my perception and my mind experiencing a short coming and maybe its more about sitting with it than letting things take hold, letting fear set in or letting doubts rule.

Today I found $20 in the park.. you never know what tomorrow might bring while I wait for new opportunities to arise. In the meantime sitting with what is happening now helps me allow a sense of distance to develop around those worries.

So tonight I took the wider perspective.. when you have little money you can’t afford to go out and not be where you are at home. You have to learn to make do and watch without being part of a wider world of consumption. So maybe in this gap between new teaching jobs and new opportunities its a chance to see what we have now rather than what we lack.

That’s a blessing and a pause in the journey. Joy!