it. It took almost two days of travel from Rishikesh, India back to Palm
Springs, CA. Long flights, long lay overs and airplane food were my way of life
for two days straight. Oh, the glory of
travel!
Thankfully, I had a few days of down time before
making the trek back home. I didn’t have much of an agenda…morning yoga,
perhaps a talk on Vedanta philosophy, a trip into town to shop and explore the
bustle of a small Indian city. It felt good to have no firm plans, my
appointment book or class schedule.
Then, just as though
it never happened…I’m back at it. Has anything
changed?
Granted, I have returned to what is typically
the busiest time of year known as “the season”. It’s the time of the annual
snow bird migration, with flocks of Canadians and people from the Pacific
Northwest spending weeks and months in our warmer climes. And who can blame them
with a steady stream of sunshine and an abundance of golf, tennis, events and
galas to be had. I see an influx of yoga students in classes and I take many
more enquiries than at other times of the year.
So after
three weeks in India where the cultural experience is quite extreme to the
desert, I step off the plane in Palm Springs and take my first deep breath of
non-polluted, cool, crispy clean air. Ah! To be home in the peacefulness of the
desert. I feel the same things as the snow birds; warmth, calm and relatively
light traffic.
I’ve tried with great consciousness to
avoid over-doing and over-committing now that I’m back in town. But it’s truly a
challenge. People who have small, local businesses such as myself also, share
the mantra to “make hay whilst the sun is shining”. As a result, I tend to get
busier than my inner peaceful self would like but my outer entrepreneur feels
satisfied.
My thought for the week is to stay mindful of
being comfortably busy rather than crazily busy. I recently heard yoga teacher,
Ragunath, talking about being SO busy, that we’re “busy until death”. We fill
up our time with many things that simply keep us occupied, that looking busy is
a treasured norm in our culture. Our to-do lists are so long, that we’re too
busy to write at the top of the list “slow down and have some quiet time”. As a
result, we’re too busy to savor the sweetness of life and then…we’re
dead.
Before I left for India I was in that crazy busy
category. It seemed as though there was so much to do before I left that I got
on the plane already exhausted. So it’s no great surprise that my down time in
Rishikesh seemed just a little too short. My deeper self was saying an inner
“FINALLY ” as I had no agenda. The trick is, can I stay connected to
that voice asking for a bit of self-care and breathing
room?
Busyness till death…ok…I hear you. My
intention is to simply be in the quiet moments. (And I think I just heard my
inner voice whisper, “thank you”!).
