Here I am again! I'm back at a place I have known well over the years. Where? The place where my expectations of how my life will go take me. This is what I am saying to myself (usually unconsciously): "If I do this or do that, then this will happen. To be specific--If I eat well, exercise, do yoga, meditate, then my body will thank me by not having joint pain (knee pain that interferes with walking this time), intestinal problems (ever since I returned from MX on Feb. 20th, I have not been quite right, although I am better now). Do you hear how I am unconsciously living in the future and not being purely in the moment? Using the Yamas and Niyamas, the ethical guidelines of yoga, I am holding on/Aparigraha to my stories of my life; I am not being fully and purely/Saucha in each moment, and my unhappiness over my reality means I am not staying in the center in contentment/Santosha.
I have had to haul myself back to observing and practicing these tools of skillful living and staying where I am as peacefully as I can. Every now and then I even get a glimpse of joy in recognizing there are blessings in these places too! These tough places alert me to how I am living my life and cause me to feel grateful for my yoga knowledge--self discipline/Tapas and surrender/Ishvara Pranidhana.
And, in all of this, I am practicing the 9th guideline, Self Study/Svadhyaya.
Let me hear some of your stories.
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Glad you are back! I have to say that i am horrible at living in the moment and cannot quite conceive of a time in the near term when i will really be able to focus and get better at it. Just seems so busy with family work and myself. I think the way to do it would be to allocate some of my workout time to meditation, with he idea that it also is restorative to my self. Peter
ReplyDeleteYes, it's hard to carve out time. It is restorative--I can promise you that. You will reap untold benefits in time. It's restorative to the mind, to the body, to the soul. It also helps one begin to step back and notice without needing to do something. That's how old, now unproductive, habits begin to fall away, and how we create the possibility for choices.
ReplyDeleteRead my little blog on meditation. Begin with 10 minutes daily as often as you can. One of the main tools is to just show up.