Ever have one of those days? You know, the one that seems to have a string of events where you think, “geez, when it rains it pours. One more bad thing and I’ll have to call it a day”.
I had one of those days this past week where it all began with a lousy night of sleep, followed by a dog with malaise, rejected credit cards (unknown fraudulent activity alert), phone calls to the bank, clients canceling appointments and blah, blah, blah. On and on it endlessly unfolded. By the time I sat down at the end of the day, just before teaching an evening class, I said to Ed, “it’s days like these that I appreciate getting on my yoga mat even more…”. We agreed that when we look back, we won’t remember the details only that we had some bumps in the road.
Life does cycle through highs and lows. It’s as though all of our experiences are a pendulum swinging from one side to the other. What our yoga practice teaches us is where to find the middle, rather than to inhabit the extremes. I once heard a quote that went something like this, “when we can see both sides of a situation with neither of them being right or wrong, it’s called wisdom.”
In recognizing that both sides exist; joy/sorrow, hope/worry; hot/cold; happy/sad; satisfaction/frustration etc, we can fully appreciate where we are at and realize that life isn’t static, but always changing. It assists in helping us to appreciate the present moment, to know that if this moment feels lousy, I know potentially the next may also feel lousy, but it may also shift into feeling better, even glorious. What keeps us coming back to the full experience of the moment is easy…it’s the breath. There is nothing more present than the breath you are in the process of breathing.
So, when things seem more challenging than usual, know that this too shall pass. That we can connect to our center by paying attention to our next inhale.
Now…breathe in and ahhhhhhhhhh!
