For the past several years my morning has begun with my practice of meditation. I wake up, go to the bathroom, do a neti pot and head into my meditation space. On some days though, I get out of bed feeling as though sleep would be the better option. On other days, my body feels creaky and sore from the previous days activities and I shuffle myself into my space. In other words, I don’t always leap out of bed and skip down the hall to meditate. Some days that whispering inner voice is tempting me to stay in bed a bit longer and that all would be okay in the world if I didn’t meditate. Yet, I silence that voice each and every time it arises.
The reason this ritual is vital to my morning is that it always re-calibrates my being. One of my teachers once said, “As you establish your meditation practice missing it one morning, it would be like leaving the house without having brushed your teeth.” Ewwww…I really try to avoid the not brushing my teeth scenario. This statement was enough for me to commit to establishing the practice and was further enhanced as I began to feel the sacredness of keeping to it. As with many things, creating a habit or new ritual takes discipline, commitment and time…some say 21-days is the turning point. You need to “commit to sit” to create that routine and over time, it gets easier and easier as it becomes not only a part of your day but a reflection of who you are.
In all of the years that I’ve been teaching movement, I can only recall a few times where I didn’t feel better after the class. And those times were when I was sick and shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I always feel better. It’s the same with a meditation or yoga practice. You always feel better for having done it.
When we come to our meditation cushion or step foot onto our yoga mat we enter our own sanctuary. It’s the place where we still our minds, connect to the fluctuations of our breath and sense our bodies. In doing so, we hit the re-set button that brings us back to our centered and sacred selves. Our over-scheduled, stressful and busy lives are constantly pulling us away from that center. Some of us have been pulled away for so many years that we’ve actually forgotten that peace resides within us. We reach for things outside of ourselves to satisfy this disconnection to self and often what we reach for are things that don’t support our optimum health or our highest selves-think caffeine, alcohol, drugs, shopping, gossip or vast amounts of time spent in front of a TV or computer screen.
In that moment where we consciously step into our practice, it’s as though we have chosen to open the door to our inner selves. We make the choice to look at what’s rippling beneath the surface and hopefully we do so from a place of non-judgment, acceptance, compassion and love. Coming to our own sanctuary we come face to face with ourselves and at times that can be scary and challenging, when we’d rather bolt than stay. Yet in staying, we not only open the door but we step through and stepping through moves us along our own path of evolution.
So in those moments where getting to your mat or cushion doesn’t seem like such a good idea…do it anyway. Open the door to your life and step through.
