Yoga For Life is a collection of essays focused on one regular life as seen through the lens of yoga. In them, yoga's deepest gifts are discovered in the mundane activities of daily life - laundry, grocery shopping, raising children, going to work, friendships, gardening - you name it! These personal, insightful meditations bring yoga's ancient spirituality, wisdom, and mindfulness sharply into modern focus.
Yoga is a practice designed to help us find contentment, happiness and faith in every aspect of our lives. Yoga For Life is written to help you as the reader – no matter the level of your practice – embrace the positive thinking, mental resilience, and transformation that develops by taking yoga beyond the mat and into your life.
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I love the saying, “No mud? No lotus!” It’s helpful when we catch ourselves slipping back into a bad habit we thought we’d broken long ago; or are filled with remorse for saying something we never should have said; or when we let an opportunity to help a friend slip by because we were overwhelmed with our own issues. In “muddy” moments like this, the lotus reminds us that it’s only by being aware of our own “muck” that we can rise again to bloom brightly in the world.
Have you ever been at a concert and felt the massive crowd moving, breathing, singing, and bouncing up and down together in synchrony? This is called collective effervescence. It feels amazing. I believe it is also a glimpse that we are all indeed connected. Each one of these experiences helps us understand that we are meant to live keenly aware that are connected to a great whole.
I don’t know if I’ve ever been haunted by a photograph before. It has been weeks since my photographer friend put her phone away after showing me the image and it has popped into my mind almost daily. Though it is a beautiful image, its resonance has felt deeper than that. Last night, as I lay in bed, I realized why the image so captivated me. Somehow, magnificently, in artfully framing what she saw, she also created an image that points to the unseen wonder and mystery of life. Her photo is a perfect visual description of what happens in spiritual direction sessions. I hope you’ll read on to share my written experience of her visual image.
What are you currently in the middle of? A semester, a process, a disagreement, a marriage, a volunteer commitment, an art project, or something else? Remember, though the middle can feel uncertain, it is heart of every story. The most important thing you can do is show up and participate. And pause every once in awhile to appreciate that the best part of every story lies in between the beginning and the end.
Life is made up of as many bumps in the road and flies at the picnic as it is sweet, easy, sunny days. While it doesn’t make the hard times any more fun, it is possible – with tears, sarcasm, humor, profanity, or whatever else you need – to shift your focus from the current mess to the preciousness and wildness of this one life of yours.
I may be a little more hard-wired than most to cling or grip. After all, one of my most visceral lessons in letting go involved crashing into a cliff wall while rappelling. Letting go can be scary and often less than graceful, but is absolutely necessary to a life well lived. Being stuck – on a cliff or otherwise – is not the way we are meant to live. We can’t grow and change and become the people we yearn to be if we’re clinging to where, and what, and who we already are. While I hope your experience with letting go goes better than mine did on that cliff, I hope you can trust that even the clumsiest attempt to do so is a step away from stuck-ness and a step closer to freedom and fulfillment.
I believe that little worldly happenings are one way that God reaches out to let us know that we are not alone, we do not have to shoulder it all, and we are always being cared for. I recently found a little angel made of construction paper, Elmer’s glue and glitter in my attic that I made when I was a little girl. Her reappearance in my life has me thinking about all the angels and tiny miracles that have shown up in my life exactly when I needed them. Keep an eye out as you zip around your own life. Miracles are all around us – especially when we are looking for them!
When a friend asked me if I set New Year’s resolutions I told him that I like to set a tone for the New Year rather than setting a particular goal. This felt like one of those spontaneous “straight from mind to mouth” answers that gets right to the truth. The “tone” I am choosing for 2023 is love. I’d like to be clear that, though I am a girl who appreciates Rom-Coms perhaps more than most, this is not the “tone” of love that I am choosing for this new year. I’m choosing instead a “tone” of love that aligns more with loving-kindness than romantic love. Loving-kindness focuses on friendliness, benevolence, good-will, and an active interest in the well-being of others. I’d love to know what “tone” you are setting for 2023! Let me know!
Sending and receiving Christmas cards is a reminder to me of how much I love and am loved. I closed the note in our card this year with a heartfelt truth, “Please know that each time you cross our minds, which is way more often than you hear from us, you make us smile.” For the opportunity to realize how fortunate I am and to be able to express this gratitude to those I love, I am grateful for this seasonal tradition. These weekly musings are yet another opportunity for me to feel grateful for the web of love and support that life has weaved for me. So, I’ll close this last essay of 2022 the way I closed the note in my Christmas card – in gratitude: “Mwah! Thank you for being a part of my life. Thank you for making my world a better place. xoxo”