As we start the new year, there’s a barrage of appeals to get fitter, eat better, do better etc etc….all sneaking into our subconscious, even when we don’t consciously ‘sign up’ to the new year, new you pitch.
What I notice in myself, and notice through my yoga practises, is that I go through seasonal, hormonal and circumstantial cycles of planting seeds, tending them, resting them, neglecting them/harvesting them, despairing of them, reflecting and starting again.
I’m not sure there is anything in our world that can be ‘fixed’, or finished, despite what many traditions of spirituality, religion, and all of our worldly systems will dictate. That said, making a consistent space for yoga practises is one way of enabling us to notice where we are living in alignment with our ‘highest and greatest good’, where we need to do some work, where we need support…and where, realistically, we fall off the good wagon, get muddy, dust ourselves down, and start again!
I have been eating & drinking well, sleeping well, working well, committing to my personal learning, tending to my family well and adjusting my yoga practise to meet everyone’s needs, including my own.
Today, in my practise, I got emotionally and physically exhausted….I reached drop backs, gave up and sobbed….I left the online mysore class, sat a minute (confused my poor child who came to check out the wailing!)…did some handstands to draw my power back and empty my head…sat a minute… Then, I had a shower…cried a bit more, thought about this as part of hormonal cycles, allowed the feelings, ate good food, felt ready to teach two yoga classes…
And…the accountability to the beautiful people that I knew were coming to these classes, enabled me to hold it together. The shared light and energy of these other humans, boosted mine…is this not the essence of NAMASTE? The light, love, life in me honours the light, love, life in you…. It’s sacred is life! …
Yoga practises are prayers, to life, to love, to doing our best, in cultivating self-compassion so that we can be compassionate to others…prayers are messy, as life is messy. Yet, prayers are also full of hope, release and surrender. Bodies, feelings, thoughts, relationships are all messy…all we can do is keep seeking the light within each messy cycle to keep the embers burning on the darker days.