We all have plans and goals, ideas of what the future brings. In yoga we talk about these as attachments of aversions, and too much of either of these things can bring a sort of discord or unbalance to the body, mind and spirit.
Yoga has a funny way of humbling us. I recently went away on a vacation with my partner Rob to sunny Florida. I love to travel and reset myself through the experience of everything being unfamiliar and new. One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to try out new yoga classes I normally wouldn’t have access to.
I did some research and found a bhakti yoga studio and decided after breakfast to walk over and check it out. I was so nervous to walk into a new studio; new teachers, new students, new atmosphere. It was like I was back in my very first class ever- unsure of a lot of things; was I going to fit in? Be able to do the practice? What if this is too hard? What if my body isn’t the right size or shape for this? All of these little insecurities flooded my system as I signed up through the mindbody app and the cheerful teacher checked me into the class.
The connection here is this always happens when I take a class with a new teacher for the first time. I fill my mind and time with these preconceived notions, ego, and self judgment. Until we chant, or sit in stillness, until we ground or the flow starts to come easily.
Everything is temporary.
In yoga philosophy we explore the concept of birth, life, death. It repeats, over and over, birth, life, death, birth, life, death, birth life death and so on. Our existence is not a linear line, or even a zigzag, but a circle. When we explore yoga we approach a pose, that's the birth, then we activate and breathe through the pose, that is the life, and then we come out of the pose, that is the death or ending. You can even think of the entire practice, warm up, crescendo, and savasana as the pattern of birth, life, and then death.
This applies to our thoughts too. The nervous thoughts upon entering the yoga space, the ideas are given birth in the mind in a moment, they live as feelings of worry, then once all is settled they die. We have power in our thoughts to move them, feel them, and release them.
It reminds me of one of my favorite lines from Zac Brown’s song Knee Deep: “Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair…”
I feel that when we approach things with so much seriousness, like doing a new yoga class with a new teacher even though we know deep down everything will be ok and yoga is this universal language of love and wellness, we can miss out on the opportunity to enjoy a new experience.
I’m not perfect by any means. I think that’s why I am so attracted to yoga; it just meets you where you are. Sometimes we fall out of a pose, have a wardrobe malfunction, or our fellow students, teachers, and partners in this journey do something silly. We’re all humans having a messy human experience.
My take away from my Bhakti yoga studio experience was that life is too short to take myself so seriously, play, fun, sunshine, and laughter can enter and take the worry away. I’m so thankful to be sharing this journey with our wonderful community in the yoga studio here on the lake. It is truly a blessing that we laugh, move, and play together in such a loving and caring way.
Classes are held at Yoga by the Lake, you can check out the full schedule updated monthly on my website and of course my facebook page. Thank you for watching and have a warm and peaceful rest of your day!