If you have felt a rolling wave of sadness over the past week' you are not alone. I cannot imagine a world where you should have to talk to your kids about school being an at risk (of being shot) environment.
If it makes you want change you are not alone. Where do I start? you might say, I am only one person and what does this have to do with me starting yoga? The answer is, it does have to do with yoga, not just making shapes but a life in yoga, the way we live.
I was thinking about the American constitution, it was written in 1789 by James Maddison, this document is 233 years old, I asked myself it even still relevant today? Tomas Jefferson figured it would have a shelf life, he argued that it should be changed every 20 years so that the documents remained relevant to the people at that time, and I kinda agree with him.
In yoga we work towards non attachment and letting go of what no longer serves us to make room for all the amazing things in our future that will serve us both individually and collectively. The Yoga Sutras are proported to be somewhere between five hundred and a few thousand years old, yet they still work?
In relation to the constitution, is America holding on to something that is no longer serving the people, just because they pledged allegiance to the flag? Why not make changes, let go of what is no longer serving the people and create something better. Something that is for the betterment of the country, that does serve the people, because you did pledge allegiance to your flag. The home of the brave and the free needs to be brave and fight for their freedom. Just as we have to regain our connection to our authentic self finding more joy happiness and personal peace, which would inevitably lead to world peace.
We are all part of this collective and we can all let go of what no longer serves us to make room for what will. This is why we need a life in yoga, but how do we get started?
Often getting started is our biggest obstacle. We make it big the list of things we need to get started gets long and expansive, we run out of hours in the day and then day after day goes by and we disappoint ourselves as the overwhelm of starting puts project yoga on the back burner.
We need to make starting not so hard. Yes, there is a lot to learn and unlearn, a life in Yoga is so much more than just doing the shapes on the rubber rectangle. Yoga is the ultimate life system for joy, happiness and world peace. We have to start some where and for most of us the asana or yoga shapes are our entry point, we relate to it, its familiar and we can see the benefits. Its an easy sell. But what about the rest of the system? The asana is such a minuscule part of a life in yoga.
It's while we are in the "making of the shapes phase" that other stuff starts to come to light. Little changes illuminated by a flickering candle in your savasana, or a deep exhale that allows you to surrender and let go of a long held tension. We hear things, they go in one ear and slip onto a post it note with the shopping list that gets buried at the bottom of your handbag and binned at the annual clean out. Until you are next open and ready to receive that message.
Yoga doesn't need to be hard it just needs to serve you. When we get overwhelmed thinking at has to have the right pants, mat and membership we loose momentum. And all our good intentions get stuck in our back pack in the car on the way to class where we get stuck in traffic and miss class wanting to cry with frustration.
Here are my top tips for getting started:
1) schedule time for your practices: block out time in your calendar, leave yourself post it note reminders
2) leave your yoga mat where you see it and make it a space that draws you to it every day.
3) start small commit to 15minutes:
3 minutes breathing
10minutes of making shapes
5 minutes sitting in stillness
4) yoga things are nice but yoga practices don't require all the things, yoga is just you and your breath
5)curate your social media, follow accounts that have travelled the path that you want to travel be inspired
6) get a coach: They will be more effective than the latest yoga pants
Point 5 is a really important one, remember when we were all going to aerobics classes? I remember, because I was instructing those classes... often with 75 people in them! Then there was that shift to find your very own personal trainer, one on one training with someone who was going to help you get results you desired. Simply put this is the Guru: Student relationship, the yoga of old.
We have come full circle, Yoga is now in this same transition, back to the Guru: Student relationship, the yoga of old, where teachers and coaches are guiding students creating of bespoke teachings and instilling of practices specific to each of their students. We have been to the classes, we can have experienced some of the benefits. We know that we can expedite our transition with a coach or mentor.
The outer game needs you to be on your inner game, create sustainable Breath Yoga & Meditation practices.
xxxkit