Do you know how you feel just after you manage to avoid the car that swerved into your lane on the highway or after you somehow catch your great-grandmother’s precious vase as it slips from your wet and soapy hands? This is crisis mode and it is OK for short bursts. But we are not designed to live this way for the long haul. Eventually it will take its toll. The longer we are "stuck" in crisis mode, the longer it can take us to downshift to a more restful state.
My dogs are always 100% curious and excited to discover what is on the other side of any gate - even one we walk through every day. They might be onto something. Ask yourself - what if I did not assume I know what is going to happen next? What if I gave myself the thrilling space to wonder and to be surprised? Couldn’t that help us to savor every moment of these precious lives of ours?
Happy Valentine's Day! On this day devoted to love, it's important to remember that we humans have always struggled to love one another. For millennia, teachers have been showing us that, in addition to being hard, messy, and exhausting, relationships are everything. Or, in the immortal words of the Beatles, "All you need is love, love. Love is all you need."
Exploring 100 years of family photos makes tangible a yoga lesson that I have grappled with on and off my mat. We cannot have love without loss, success without failure, joy without sorrow, or light without darkness. What we can have, though, is a sense of peace as we ride the ride of life through it all.
Is there something you hate doing, yet somehow find yourself doing it again and again? Like grooves on a record, habits keep us singing the same old song. With practice we can smooth away these habits to free ourselves to sing any song we want. Creating new habits is not a quick-fix. In fact, it can take a lifetime. In the wise words of Glennon Doyle, “luckily a lifetime is exactly how long we have.”
Playing Scrabble with my grandmother taught me that playing – and playing well - is fun whether or not you win. Which is good news because it took me 10 years to win! Looking back, I see that, as sweet as that long-awaited win was, the sweetness of that victory pales in comparison to all the time my grandmother and I spent together noodling around with letters and words. Every game we played, I learned. Every time we sat down, I got a little better. The practice was more meaningful, it turns out, than the results.
Sometimes it takes a long time for the depths of meaning of experiences to reveal themselves. A year after I saw her, my encounter with a tiger reveals a deep and elusive truth - who I am is infinitely more lasting and breathtaking than anything I could ever do. The same is true for you.
It's a busy time of year and you might be feeling overwhelmed or distracted. Which means that that this is a good time of year to remember that your life is made up of your moments. Even moments that seem meaningless and uninteresting hold gifts that you could easily miss if you aren't paying attention. Why not embrace a practice that helps you get better at noticing each moment so that the holidays - and (egads!) your life - don't fly right by you?
Though traditions can make me feel rebellious, as I carried my Nanny’s rolls on my husband’s great-great-grandmother’s platter to a table aglow from candlesticks my parents received as a wedding gift to our Thanksgiving table, doing so felt exactly right. Yoga has helped me be clear about who I am, what I like and what matters to me. It is this clarity that allows me to do things "my way" while leaving space for some of the traditions that have formed me.