Author: pmcrose

Stillness is waiting for you to stop for a moment.

“Come and sit with me for a while…

and you’ll remember I’ve never left you.”

The stream is in no hurry to get anywhere.  Churning and bubbling along with no concern.  All the while, never grabbing on, merely  flowing, being a stream, never possessing anything, not even itself.

We are born free, our own person.  We are cared for, but never belong to anyone.  We are life’s.

Often when we care for someone, especially when we are concerned or scared for their safety and wellbeing, we may struggle with the urge to control them and/or their situation.  We may think and even feel in our hearts that we know what’s best for another.

But real inner freedom or autonomy, the gift to live the life of our own choosing is our birthright.  Respect and treasure it!

We have, in the end, one life to live–our own.

We can care deeply for others, but we never control them.

Come to know and accept the fear that goads us at times to try to control life.  Let it pass.  And let go to life!

Vehicles transport us.  We get in them and we go places.

A yoga mat and meditation cushion are no different.

You get on them, and they transport you to new, often unexplored places of the body, heart, mind, and spirit.

Next stop?…

About 8 months ago, I was barely able to walk–a shuffle of few steps brought halting pain from a first-time bout of sciatica.

After 3 weeks on a cane hunched over and many osteopathic and acupuncture treatments, I began eight months of rehabilitation.

Physical therapy, a steroid injection, cranial-sacral treatments, and massage. all became part of the “cure.”

I began a concerted yoga regimen, light at first with yin and restorative yoga and an occasional down-dog.

My goal was to strengthen my core to support the spine, hips, and torso better, to increase my range of motion, and to decrease pain.

But now I’m back to full yoga classes, and have been for the last four months.  I am stronger than ever.  I still have some pain, but its seems over time to be lessening in intensity and frequency.  Healing is slower at 60, more of a meander and is requiring a lot of patience and perseverance.

Yoga certainly is no panacea, but it continues to strengthen and support me in ways I cannot put into words.

Yoga literally saved my butt!

And for this I am wholeheartedly grateful!

 

*Along with the help of many talented health and wellness professionals!

So much of yoga is about balance and drawing one’s energy to the midline, balancing in and around and with our core strength.

Depending on the pose, this can difficult.  And what is easy for one is difficult for another, and vice versa.

We all have our points of challenge.

In yoga, I am coming more often into this playful effort zone.  I am really trying some new and challenging poses.  I am working at them, and mostly smiling as I try my best; I find myself giggling even as I may be tumbling off balance, not so ego-involved but willing to experiment and modify as I go.

It’s humbling.

It seems consistent effort is key, as is learning from each fall or “failure”–as a sign to adjust some, smile, and try again.

I have heard it said that walking really is falling.  And maybe yoga is training the body to find it’s balance (and readjusting when it is lost) in all types of poses.  This may help us to better keep our balance, to pull towards the midline, to stay centered as best we can in life no matter what the challenge.

 

 

 

Like the force of gravity, the still center pulls our attention or consciousness inward.

Galloping thoughts eventually slow their pace to a walk, then a meander.

They notice the beauty of the silence and their reprieve from their previous flurry.

They smile and relax near to stillness.

In silence, they recognize the place from which they arise and into which they dissolve.

Dumbfounded into silence, they cease, and as if looking in a mirror the first time, they recognize themselves.

Set a sincere intention that is mutually beneficial to everyone involved.

Repeat it and hold it as an offering to life, to a higher power other than your ego.

Hold it in your heart like a sacred offering or prayer.

Drop your expectations and be open to possibilities.

Then do your part.

Exert effort towards your intention.

Do the work to try to fulfill it!

Be patient.  Rome really was not built in a day!

Finally, step aside

and be open to life as it constructs its own fulfillment of your intention,

something usually in detail different than you ever could have imagined,

and much more wondrous and fulfilling.

Have you ever noticed when you laugh, for a moment, you loose consciousness of who you are, of being you?

This is the space of the void, a slip into the great expanse beyond this ego.

Attachment to being you is loosened for that split moment.  You tumble ever so briefly in consciousness itself.  You feel unfettered… free.  It feels so good.

Laugh…

Meditation and yoga help loosen the grip of the ego and consciousness on one another.

Tumble, if you will, with these practices into who you are really are,

and enjoy!

May my presence help others, and may theirs help me.

Does the beautiful rose sitting atop the stem ever make such a prayer?

Throughout our lives, we dance with and around the ever-shifting center or life force.

We can seek to move more in correspondence to it and develop an ever-deeper and nuanced relationship with it.

Through our yoga and meditation practices, we can learn to play with how we relate to this center or force. Our practices can help us develop, deepen, and even learn to let go to this relationship.

How we live and all our other relationships mirror this primary relationship. As we honor and respect this center or life force, our lives become filled with enthusiasm, energy, love, joy, and peace.

In yoga and meditation, we can practice or play at refining and fine-tuning the infinite nuances in this relationship—a continuous, never-ending journey, one asana… one breath at a time.

Throughout, may we be graced to find opportunity in its challenges and be open to its immeasurable energy and joy.