Since closing the Yoga Studio almost two years ago, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with a number of people who have lamented that their practice wasn’t what they would like it to be. They say they have gotten away from it and yearn for inspiration. Come to think of it, I heard a lot of that even when the studio was in full swing. Sound familiar? It is a common thing in our busy culture to struggle to develop a practice of contemplation and meditation – especially when the kids are in soccer and various lessons and you are involved in transporting them, feeding them, cleaning up after them and probably holding down a job yourself. If not family, then it might be work or other basic living demands and life-dramas that keep you in constant motion. On the other hand, I’ve also heard from people who have the time, but still find themselves cutting the practice short just to get on with the day. Now you all know that there is more to yoga than simply doing the postures. There is meditation and pranayama (whoa, you say, that’s even further from my reach!) Then there is that thing we refer to as yoga “off the mat”. That’s when everything you learned and realized while in the practice of asana and during your studies, comes to life in the world. When that happens, your yoga practice is not an isolated period of time when you feel great while the rest of the day is still the same challenges and foibles.
Yoga is settling the constant chatter and busyness of the mind into silence. The purpose of settling the busyness in the mind is to know your true nature. There are many different words that try to describe what that is: Presence, Silence, Truth, Love, Beauty. When you are open to, aligned with, and inspired with Presence, you begin to see and hear and feel more clearly and more deeply and more richly and live more fully alive. You are more yourself. Less life energy goes into worrying about the future or worrying about anything at all. Less life energy is wasted holding back and keeping yourself small. Less life energy is contracted and constricted with self-limiting beliefs. You no longer are at the mercy of your mind but the mind serves you and helps you to live life at full throttle. When life is lived fully alive, awake and aware, there is a fulfillment that wants for nothing. There is an overwhelming sense of beauty and love and light and illumination and causeless joy. There is an ease of living, a continuous sense of gratitude and grace. There comes a natural desire or a natural movement toward the highest expression of a human being you are capable of embodying. There is a natural easing toward a full appreciation for all that is. You begin to listen more fully, and love pours freely into your life… you struggle less and breathe more freely. You are nourished by the breath and by your senses. The first step to having that kind of aliveness and awareness is to want it. I know that sounds too simplistic to even print it, but that is the first step. You have to want it and it has to be on top of your list of “wants”. The yoga sutras tell us that we don’t have to wait lifetimes for self- realization. It says that realization is very near. How near, it tells us, depends on how intensely it is wanted. So you have to decide that you are ready for a change and that you are willing to invest in it and that it is very important. You have to decide that you want it now. You decide and then you begin living your life in alignment with that decision.
Write yourself a note in your own words (or copy mine). This note will be for you to read in those moments when you get lost or find yourself choosing unhappiness, choosing unconsciousness, choosing to go into auto pilot reactivity or simply choosing not to show up for yourself and your practices. Write all the reasons you have for choosing to practice yoga, for choosing happiness and health, consciousness and freedom, and pure causeless joy. Do it. Put the note away in a safe place where you will be able to find it. I always kept mine in my yoga space, or rolled up in my mat. My only rule is to show up. If on any given day I get the feeling to skip out, the very minimal requirement is to sit down and read my note.
