Author: pmcrose

It’s easy these days to get buried by an avalanche of worries.

Yoga and meditation are certainly no cure for the problems that spark our worries that bog us down.

However, this variation of Lion’s Breath, Laughing Lion is no laughing matter.

Seriously, it can help your lighter and braver heart come roaring back!

At first it may feel like you are forcing yourself to laugh, because in all likelihood you are! Just go with it…. And soon the laugh will become funny in itself, and you will find yourself… laughing! (This is especially true if you practice Laughing Lion in a group (these days of course limited to folks you’re sheltering in with).

To say we are in a different place now than we though we’d be 3 months ago is an understatement, to say the least.

The present is a present we could hardly have imagined.

It’s a shocker.

Hard to yield to…

Breathe!… Breathe in deep… and breathe out long.

Arrive into this moment as it is–not as you thought it would, should, or even could be.

Breathe in deep… and breathe out long….

Meditate… do your asanas.

Marshall your forces and meet the present.

It’s a whole new world out there, but with equipoise, we have what it takes to, even cheerfully, greet it!

“Now the practice of yoga begins.”

So goes the first Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.

Yoga is often erroneously taken to be about body flexibility. “I can’t bend like that!”

Actually yoga is more about body/mind/heart adaptability!

I will do this asana or pose to the best of my ability in this moment with this body/mind/heart as it is now–doing the poses as you can with all the conditions of now as they are.

Herein lies the real flexibility of yoga, to adapt to the now as it is and make the most of it, to find strength and ease in conditions no matter how they are.

Now is the time for a special kind of flexibility–adaptability to the now we may have never thought we’d face.

Yoga and meditation can help us embrace our Gumby-like nature, and bend with the times, adapting to the changes and, in many ways, reinvent how we live.

This is yoga!

Now, the practice of yoga begins!

We all do!

I think even the most optimistic among us might agree the world in the midst of this pandemic is a mess.

How do we navigate it? Is there a way to still retain or even gain greater inner peace, good humor, compassion, joy, love, and happiness?

Yoga and meditation are major components in my navigation system. Over and over again, they have not failed me.

In times like these, we need a navigation system we can rely on. We need a system as close to fail-safe as possible, don’t you think?

Practice your yoga and meditation to help you navigate!

An infectious virus does not discriminate; it will take on any breathing human as its host.

Neither does the fear and even despondency associated with coronavirus know any limits to its spread, except to maybe the most callous.

It has spread world-wide to even those sheltering in place!

However, yoga and meditation can take us to a happiness (yes, I will use that word) beyond circumstance.

It has always had this power and influence.

That is, at its core, its amazing power–to transform seemingly stone into gold, disaster into opportunity, to bring the presence of mind to face the situation as it and make the most of even the worst of circumstances. This power can be the the fulcrum from which stamina, perseverance, and enthusiasm spring.

Far from callous, in the midst of emotional turmoil, it is the calm, the center of the storm, if you will.

This eye is the witness, the compassionate yet detached which stirs with love and drives us to be “happy” even in the most difficult times.

Yoga and meditation can reveal the innate markers for this deep happiness. Practice and discover this inner positivity and strength. It is at the heart of who we are!

The more of us that get infected with it, the better!

Like a Master Chef, you stir my heart with love.

May you find your teacher that stirs that love from the tail end of your spine to the crown of your head… and beyond!

Today, we celebrate all the great teachers that inspire and teach us with love.

At any moment, be inspired and uplifted by these teachers.

They lurk everywhere!

Our mind is hard-wired to protects us.

The invisible threat of coronavirus can keep us in a general state of alert to possible danger.

This alertness can help us take precautions to be safe.

However, an invisible threat does not retreat from our psyches.

With this possible danger ever-lurking, we may not be able to let go of our agitation.

Through yoga and meditation, we can safely soothe the ever-alert mind and its nervous system that keep us safe.

We can thank them for their vigilance.

We can dial back the agitation and give our mind a break, a rest in the safety of our practices, now more than ever as a thank you gift to that which works so hard to keep us safe.

We tune ourselves up again and again by returning to our yoga mat and meditation cushion.

Regular yoga and meditation help to keep our ego more aligned with the universal, the mind with the heart.

We are all bound to get out of kilter at points and get carried away, especially these days, with life’s ups and downs.

Remember to go in regularly for a tune up!

When the the mind comes to rest in the heart, there is stillness or yoga.

All things that take the mind to the heart are yoga.

Yoga is the process that tethers the mind and draws it to the heart.

Via our yoga and meditation practices, we bring our mind to its home in the heart.

Bring it home!

While sheltering-in-place may be the extreme introvert’s dream, for most of us it leaves a palpable hunger for real human social contact.

Right now, you may find yourself obsessed with social media, FaceTime, Zoom, texting…

We are all feeling the stress of this virus; our shared vulnerability to this invisible threat is palpable.

While yoga and meditation cannot bring us the good company of friends and family, it can help draw us closer to who we really are.

Though it seems we’re far apart right now, we are closer than we think–all like the arms, legs, fingers, and toes of some giant human hydra–one people interconnected by our common shared humanity, interconnected by love.

Finding yourself alone? Connect with your deeper self via yoga, meditation… via nature… an act of kindness. Connect to your common humanity more deeply.

It’s really not so common at all, but quite extraordinary!