.......allowing life

‘Thank you September’ begins Tuesday!  Still time to sign up!  If you are on the fence…..take a chance and jump on over.

Yogis,

The other night in class everyone was dropped into resting half pigeon.  A pose of letting go, but one that can be quite uncomfortable for many.  The set up can be challenging for those with tight knees or hips, but the key to then being “in the pose” is to spend the next two minutes, just you and your breath,  allowing the body to sink down.

“Allow everything to be as it is”….. I said.  As the words came out of my mouth I heard them differently than I had ever heard them before.  Time stood still for just a second.

“Allow everything to be just as it is”   AAHHHHHH!!!!   But that is soooooo darn hard!!

The practice of yoga is merely a practice for life.  What we do on the mat is only as good as our ability to do it out in the world.  We focus on our breath in half pigeon and let that left outer hip talk loudly to us while we continue to focus on watching the discomfort without reacting.  Being with things as they are.

But out in the world!  Now that is another whole story.  How can I possibly be with everything exactly as it is???  I am not sure I can do that for even the two minutes we are in a pose, much less for a full day, week or month. 

Stop for a moment and say to yourself  - I am letting everything be EXACTLY as it is – look around and see what that feels like.  Everything.  My kids, my dog, my body, my job.   I notice my shoulders drop six inches as if a heavy weight suddenly rolled off.  An exhale escapes.

I had a song in my playlist last week called  ‘I will fix you’ and every time it played I was reminded how I catch myself trying to ‘fix’ others.  You know what I mean?  If only my son understood that……..  If only my husband would eat more ………  If she just realized what meditation could do for her.  If my friend would focus more.  Exercise more.   Once I teach them ……..  Basically – if everyone could be a little more like me J

We try to fix others, the house, the world, the way things work.  Do we ever stop for a moment and allows things to be exactly as they are?  Accept others as they are.  Allow mistakes.  Smile at frustration.  Gaze at our naked body in the mirror without one judgment.  Be ok with the hum of the Universe. 

I not suggesting that we don’t want change.  That is human nature and we are infinite creators. Change is dynamic and unending.  But what my lesson from the Universe was this week is that first we must “Allow everything to be as it is”.  When we can do that, even for moments at a time, our lens clears.  We see everything as it is – warts and all – not how we want it to be.  We befriend it.   And from that clarity we move forward.  Maybe, just maybe, not needing to ‘fix’ quite so much.

Allowing life,
SARAH