Life, the Universe and Everything
I've been thinking about balance. Mostly because I'm definitely out of it. Working LOTS of hours, sometimes spinning my wheels doing it so that the forward motion feels more like driving a rutted road where I have to swerve right and left just to avoid being bounced into a ditch. Eating the wrong things and then not liking the way my body is looking in that mirror I glance at from time to time. Exercise? Not enough. Not enough yoga, but also not any of the walking I need to be doing to be comfortable on the Compostella trail in a few short weeks.
So. I walk into yoga this morning and my lovely yoga teacher, Abby, says, "So, today we're going to be working on balance." She goes into the way our sense of balance deteriorates as we age-- not making clear, I think to myself, that we can counteract that loss of balance with practices that maintain it for us-- and offers to take us through some yoga poses that will help us practice balance. I am thinking, "Universe? You reading my mind? Wait, you ARE my mind. My heart and soul."
Of course, this is the way it works, has always worked for me. I am in need of a life lesson. Maybe it's one that I have actually already learned once or twice...or many times...but one that I need to re-learn because I know this is not working for me, the way I'm living right now. I'm not in the present. I'm not honoring this vehicle of my soul; I'm taking it for granted, all the while, actively not listening to that voice of my body and all that other stuff telling me in subtle and not so subtle ways that I need to get back on the path, just bring my attention back to the here and now, just turn myself in the direction of the light.
It isn't really particularly difficult. I had this revelation once in a therapy session. I paused and looked at my therapist and said, "It's just like I simply turn around where I'm standing. I'm looking up at that mountain I've been pushing this heavy stone up, pushing and watching it roll backwards down so I can push it up again... and then I just turn myself around and there, in front of me is the mountainside, the forest, the ocean in the distance...all beautiful and all mine. All I have to do is turn around." She gave me one of those enigmatic smiles that therapists practice in front of mirrors. They never say, "YES! You GOT it. Finally!" Just that smile.
The other offering Abby made via the Universe today was to tell us that NEXT week, she'll be addressing the question of sitting all day long. Which of course is what I do. It's my job. I sit in my, yes, it's ergonomic but still, chair. I look at my two computer screens and do my virtual work. Whoa. Balance and dealing with sitting in a chair.
What can I say, but, hey Universe. Thanks. I needed that.
So. I walk into yoga this morning and my lovely yoga teacher, Abby, says, "So, today we're going to be working on balance." She goes into the way our sense of balance deteriorates as we age-- not making clear, I think to myself, that we can counteract that loss of balance with practices that maintain it for us-- and offers to take us through some yoga poses that will help us practice balance. I am thinking, "Universe? You reading my mind? Wait, you ARE my mind. My heart and soul."
Of course, this is the way it works, has always worked for me. I am in need of a life lesson. Maybe it's one that I have actually already learned once or twice...or many times...but one that I need to re-learn because I know this is not working for me, the way I'm living right now. I'm not in the present. I'm not honoring this vehicle of my soul; I'm taking it for granted, all the while, actively not listening to that voice of my body and all that other stuff telling me in subtle and not so subtle ways that I need to get back on the path, just bring my attention back to the here and now, just turn myself in the direction of the light.
It isn't really particularly difficult. I had this revelation once in a therapy session. I paused and looked at my therapist and said, "It's just like I simply turn around where I'm standing. I'm looking up at that mountain I've been pushing this heavy stone up, pushing and watching it roll backwards down so I can push it up again... and then I just turn myself around and there, in front of me is the mountainside, the forest, the ocean in the distance...all beautiful and all mine. All I have to do is turn around." She gave me one of those enigmatic smiles that therapists practice in front of mirrors. They never say, "YES! You GOT it. Finally!" Just that smile.
The other offering Abby made via the Universe today was to tell us that NEXT week, she'll be addressing the question of sitting all day long. Which of course is what I do. It's my job. I sit in my, yes, it's ergonomic but still, chair. I look at my two computer screens and do my virtual work. Whoa. Balance and dealing with sitting in a chair.
What can I say, but, hey Universe. Thanks. I needed that.