JANUARY 21, 2009:
So let’s begin. Take a few deep breaths. As you inhale, inhale peace and wideness into the nervous system. As you exhale, breath out the memories of your day. Do this several times until your brain becomes calm and centered, and then relax deeply. What happened today is now in the past. In life change is constant. There is a beginning, middle and end to everything. We see this as we enter a new day in the history of our nation. Things are always dissolving, dying, being born. And if we are lucky enough to wake up sooner rather than later we can stop taking even a single day for granted.
"Attend the birthing of the radiant light within you" - Vijnana Bhairava Tantra
So for your contemplation I asked the following two questions:
Q: If you had all the time, money, and energy you wanted, what would you do?
Q: If you were dying, what would you wish you had done that you are not doing now? Why aren't you doing it?
A lovely California teacher, Max Strom says it like this "Yoga inspires change. It's a tool to help you drop negative habits and adopt helpful ones, to embrace whatever the present and future hold, I believe you must assess what you're hiding from and be willing to change. To me Vinyasa yoga has been a great way to release some of the tension in my life so I could transform my body, and learn to be present. While doing so I transformed my mind to be more flexible too. And have learned healthy ways of meeting lifes changes, especially not letting tension consume me. For what is tension if not resistance to change.
We have an opportunity here to make a difference in the world as Ghandi says “to be the change we wish to see”. Or Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States said it like this, “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."
Get to the mat, use it as your personal laboratory to safely test out for yourself changes in the way you respond to stuff. Like responding to challenging poses with kindness, non reactiveness, laughter, compassion, non-judgement, and ultimately acceptance. This then translates into how you live, interact and relate to your external world. Know that without a doubt your time on the mat is bringing about the peace we all aspire to – you are changing the world! Or as Michael Franti (Power to the Peaceful, Spearhead) says “One thing that yoga has taught me is that the rate at which the world changes is exactly the rate at which I change”
RIGHT ON! ROCK ON! BE ON! Silvia
