I love yoga. I prefer the gentle stretch and restorative yoga classes. While stretching and strengthening me, they are also helping me slow down and connect with my body and just be.
The world is so full of doing that I welcome the being. My first book The Sea Slug is in part about this. In the companion at the back I coined the phrase “a down day for doing and an up day for being” which was my day yesterday.
I started with yoga and then flit about from chatting on the phone to a few chores to cooking to taking a walk to feeding the birds to making a fire in the woodstove to writing this blog. Instead of the to-do-list and the push that governs most days, I went with the flow.
Yoga is union—body, mind, and spirit. How do we live that union off the mat? Step into my every-moment-meditation classroom.
Now just as there are a variety of yoga styles, there are a myriad of meditation styles. A goal of meditation is to still the mind, so any meditation that involves a lot of talking is out. Some talking is needed initially to guide the meditator to focus but not on words. The body is the gateway to the being or spirit so the focal point is the body.
Once the mind is still, the goal is to connect with the vastness and oneness and essence of who we are, to relax there, to deepen, to be the stillness, to feel the joy. This is the simplicity of being, and it is always right here now.
Try this for a moment. Focus on your feet with your inner attention until you feel them tingling. Stay with it. This sensation is your spirit. It’s that simple. Breathe and smile into your feet with your attention. Maintain the focus until you feel your feet smile back at you, energetically.
Then you can move about to your arms, your hands, and so on. Eventually, you let go of the body and enter inner space whose realms are as infinite as outer space. The trick is not to leave the inner stillness when you re-enter the outer world of movement. It’s about being in both places at once, about being and doing, stillness and movement, yin and yang, simultaneously.
Yes, we will lose it but if we pause for peace all throughout the day, it will be less likely. And when we realize we have lost it, we can bring ourselves back, every moment. Connect to the body, breathe, and smile into it.
The light in me honors the light in you.
Namaste.
article photo: Burst on Pexels