Gratitude Is A Return To Balance Life is good when friends bring you Haribo Gummies and Coca cola bottles, to replenish your emergency stock. I am grateful! I am grateful for this “time out” to really work through some things I have neglected for far too long. I am grateful that I have so many people loving me and supporting me on this journey. I am so grateful……..I could go on and on and on. Most of the time it’s just easier to focus on what is wrong in your life. I don’t have this, I can’t do that…..you fill in the blank. But through this forced alone time I can see clearer and clearer now. That doesn’t mean that I am aware 100% all of the time, I mean I AM human….Hahahaha But it just means that some of the layers are peeling back and I catch glimpses of my true self and I like it. Right now, this moment, life is good. I know that it can change instantly so I better enjoy it right now. Enjoying getting on my mat again, still having a hard time getting up and down, but you know what? I can do it. Not the way I could before, but still I am grateful. My arms are slowly moving out and up and I pull the prayer to my heart. And I am grateful. Again, my arms sweep out and up and I pull the prayer to my heart. I am whole, I am healthy, I am here Now is my prayer and affirmation. Again, going for my favorite number 3, my arms sweep out and up and I pull my prayer to the heart. Here my hands rest on my heart, tuning into the steady rhythm of my heart beat. And I am grateful that I can move my arms. I am checking in with my shoulders and my neck, my head needs more support these days and that’s ok. Because I started out with 3 pillows and I am down to just a neck roll. And I am grateful. I am grateful that I am learning that maybe some of my physical issues are from 52 year of core neglect. I had a hunch for the longest time that it was my weakest link. Now this moment, I have the opportunity to really feel…...well….everything. Then we have two choices, do something about it or just put another layer on again ( i am too busy, It’s nothing, I don’t have time, etc) I am turning on my favorite music these days, Gregorian Chant, and all my cats and my dog join me in my office,I think they like the calm energy when I practice these days. I am taking another breath and slowly start bringing awareness to my core, doing cat and cow right here on my back. Then after that doing gentle leg lifts, one at a time. When I start feeling it in my shoulders I stop because I know that I lost focus on my core and now doing more harm than good. Breathing in and breathing out, coming back into this moment...repeat repeat repeat. Now my ego is pretty strong so at times it says, “you know we are not really doing anything, right?” and I answer back: oh but we are, dear.” And I am grateful for this moment. I am grateful to my teachers, Lakshmi Sutter, Erich Schiffmann, Judith Hanson Lasater, Nischala Joy Devi and so many more. The other day when I posted a quote from Erich on social media, he replied and finished the quote and Lakshmi replied as well. I am so grateful for the reminder of the pivotal moments in my life, through those beautiful human beings. And I am so grateful. Because of all that I am reminded why I got into yoga in the first place. It was not because I wanted to sweat and do headstand, that's for sure. It was and is the whole package all eight limbs. So as I am contemplating coming back to the mat as a teacher it becomes clearer and clearer that I need to teach about what's going on in my life, in my body. I believe in being authentic and with all this Zooming my ego gets in the way. But I am grateful, for this insight, for being able to come back, for the ability to move. The risk of losing that ability was the whole reason for the surgery. I love to move. Gently, softly, with no hurry or agenda.( Debbie would dispute this statement thinking of when we walked together at the Ashram hahaha.) I can still do that. Yippee!!! So I am asking you, right now: what are you grateful for? Could you when a negative thought forms find something that you are grateful for? And how does it change your mood and reactions? What if you always work out hard and want to do the opposite? And the other way around, what if you have been inactive and wanted to feel your heart pump? Either way, can you find something in it that you are grateful for? Bringing awareness to it all. As with everything, gratitude is a practice and needs to be cultivated. I learned all this because of the time out during Covid 19, my recovery and the weekly “meetings” with my friend down at the boat landing, outside, savely 6 ft apart. Every week we are making it a priority to meet and I am so grateful for that. It truly is our mental health day. Before the pandemic we could never get together, because of our busyness. Hmmmmm….interesting how your priorities shift when everything is in question. Gratitude Is A Return To Balance. Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing you on the mat, on a chair, or any other way that you want or need to practice. And I am grateful OM OM OM Yoga Sutra 2:42 SAMTOSAD ANUTTAMAH SUKHA LABHAH. Supreme (anuttamaḥ) joy (sukha) is attained (lābhaḥ) through the practice of gratitude (saṁtoṣāt). I am also sharing this link for this beautiful song that Jenifer M. shared with me, come into Cosmic Reclining pose, put it on and breathe…….that’s it, nothing more. It is about 10 minutes, pause reset, BE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUQkBFFML7w
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