Take Your Time

Hi Friends! Golly, it has been a LONG time… so many moments of “ah man, I gotta go post something” have come and gone… but Here I Am; Hopped up on puerh tea, sitting at the edge of a hotel-bed, clacking away into the wee hours of the night.

I observed something interesting about myself several days ago as this vacation was just getting underway. Extended periods of dedicated leisure-time make me rather uncomfortable. I am good about taking things easy, being mellow, and not being a BisyBackson during my day-to-day existence. Yet cornered into a ten-day reprieve from my weekly-grind, I found myself immediately stacking up tasks to tend to while on my “getaway”.

It is an easy and predictable course to call myself names and accuse myself of being a workaholic, which wouldn’t be a completely unfair allegation to make. But the Truth is, when you’re doing what you love, work IS leisure. It is a delight to dabble in my various “hobbies” without the pretense of vocation or relaxation. Vacation is a perfect excuse to Let It Be.

I brought a Type-A treasure trove of stuff to facilitate my fickle fancy… Me and my Guitar got some quality time in, and my lately-neglected songwriting adventure has benefitted greatly from the kind of inspiration that can only come from packing up and shipping out.

I also had the intention of doing some bookkeeping tasks for my business and I am pleased to be able to say that I haven’t dealt with it at all!

My other “agenda” for this week had been my personal yoga and taichi studies.

I had visions (read: expectations) of spending time on physical practice, which definitely hasn’t happened. But I was able today to get some perfectly-timed reading in.

During a three-hour car ride to Oglethorpe, Georgia I cracked open my copy of the Yoga Sutras. As a nod to the back-to-basics breath of fresh air I was needing, I started at the beginning.

Within the first thirty pages, I was reminded of some quintessential ideas.

#Yoga Practice helps us to cultivate steadiness of Mind. In a world full of distraction and sensation, it is easy to be pulled about, both literally and figuratively.

#Yoga Practice is a Self-study. It reveals to us our TrueNature (the Self-self), beyond labels and Ego, beyond our identifications and attachments. And in this process we discover that the most important adjustments we can make are self-adjustments. We can’t expect to see fields of green, even if we splash green paint across the landscape, if we are wearing red-lenses in our glasses!

#Yoga Practice requires Devotion, Patience, and Faith. Seek to “become eternally watchful” of thoughts and actions. Even if you’re not in downward-facing dog, that does not mean you ought to grant yourself an all-access pass to being an ass. It is precisely when we step off the mat that we need to be especially watchful. Asana is largely just a vehicle for cultivating this watchfulness.

#Yoga Practice requires Patience because we are only Human. In our eagerness to achieve stillness of mind, we think we can do it all at once. We even think it HAS to be done all at once. NOT SO. We need to remember to be gentle with ourselves and compassionate with ourselves. If we just start by trimming away a little at a time, we will make progress.

 

This last bit may resonate the strongest for me in my personal Practice. I am prone to all-or-nothing perspectives, to feast-and-famine methods…

As the New Moon (also a solar eclipse!) sets in, I am releasing the tendency to try to do everything at once; in acknowledging the progress that has been made I reaffirm my dedication to Practice, and allow that which is ready to fall away to do so without judging myself for maintaining other attachments.

I wish Y’all Well on your Journey too, and hope the New Moon ushers in freshness and aliveness!

Namaste!