Our actions define us. The choices we make, resist, embrace, clutch, and surrender make up our world. What you’re willing to die for hopefully mirrors the things you’re willing to live for now. Go after those things and LIVE.
The past few days, I really wasn’t living. I made choices that did not serve my general well-being. I did not write on my blog. I practiced asana minimally. I took on too many projects at work without just being honest and saying it was too much. I chose to take on my fatigue, stress, and worry rather than practice mindfulness and let each moment stand for itself. I think I felt like since I am going on a week vacation today to Massachusetts and Kripalu, a yoga retreat center, that it didn’t matter if I took on too much and did not practice because I would have a week devoted to rest and practice coming up.
My awareness of this was truly the key. I started to inject pieces of yoga where I could: pranayama here, handstand there, journal writing, laughter, and self-care. Doing those little things gave me the focus to come to my mat in supta baddha konasana for forty-five minutes and observe my breath and let go, let go, let go.
Moments where stress gets the best of us and we get off track in our practice happen. They’re not a bad thing. They just show us areas where we need to put a little more work in and spread more prana and love. We do the work and self-care every time we step on the yoga mat, sing, write, draw, create, love, cook, etc. We do that work so that in moments of stress we’re prepared and we know how to keep breathing. We know how to let go of the stress so that it does not consume us. A client that I visited yesterday says that he has panic attacks almost everyday. He says that he tries to practice the breathing techniques we teach him but that it doesn’t work. He feels too overwhelmed in those moments of panic to be able to breathe. The thing is you cannot learn to breathe during an intense moment of stress. You have to work on breathing to your full capacity throughout the day so that it’s automatic when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
If you’re feeling stressed, tired, or off balance in some way, give yourself small moments throughout the day where you sit with yourself and just be. Visualize what you need and spread it to those areas that need it. Spread love, spread compassion, spread joy, spread strength. We are never lacking. We always have the ability to give ourselves what we need.
Look inside yourself; Everything you want, you are already that. — Rumi
Be all that you are seeking so that you never go without.
– lissa
April 23rd, 2011 at 7:26 am
We always have the ability to give ourselves what we need. <– my fav part. lovely! I suspect you'll hear similar messages from Sadie this week. Enjoy
April 25th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
So true, Lissa. I encouraged a friend of mine
to practice breathing- mindful inhaling and
exhaling to curtail her negative thoughts.
Thank you for this blog on yoga. Yoga has
helped me tremendously.
April 27th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
This is so true to what happened to me the last few days. It is so easy to get way out in left field. Lovely post
May 4th, 2011 at 4:26 pm
Beautiful Rumi quote :)
I really should work more pranayama in my practice…