I’ve left the house once since returning from Florida on Monday and that was only to go to the grocery store.
I’ve been on my meditation cushion and my yoga mat every day. More importantly, I’ve practiced silence, stillness and yoga OFF my cushion and OFF my mat. More than ever before, I’ve unplugged, ignored my phone and spent less time on my computer, and yet I have had MORE time to do so. I’ve finished reading 4 books and started a 5th, and obviously, I’ve picked up my pen and written.
Surprisingly, throughout this first week in quarantine or social distancing, whatever, I haven’t felt restless. I haven’t let fear overwhelm me. I’ve felt fear, but it hasn’t consumed me or paralyzed me. I’ve done more of nothing, which is itself a practice, and I have felt strangely peaceful.
Oh, I’ve had my pity parties; don’t get me wrong. I sobbed Monday, I recovered Tuesday, I digressed Wednesday and bounced back Thursday. But once I was done reacting to all the hysteria provided to me via the television, I found my tadasana, my mountain pose, and I encourage you to do the same.
I haven’t taught any yoga classes all week. The internet is currently flooded with Facebook Live classes, Online Live Streaming classes, and new You Tube channels, so there is no deficit in yoga class offerings. My email has blown up with emails from the several yoga studios marketing their online classes. I do miss my students, I miss the connection, hearing them breathe and watching my words land in their bodies. One thing I know for sure is that teaching and giving fills my cup just as much as being a student of yoga, and that I must do both to remain balanced. So with that, I’d like to teach you more about being yoga, living your practice, and finding your tadasana.
Tadasana, mountain pose, starts with finding your true north.
Ground down through all 4 corners of your feet, feel the connection to your mat, your flooring, beneath the floor all the way to the earth. Both feet face 12 o’clock. Lift and spread your toes then stretch them out on your mat.
Lift up, stand tall, lengthen through the crown of your head keeping the joints soft and pelvis neutral. Your arms at your sides and palms open and forward with fingers spread.
Feel strong in your center as you engage your legs, from the skin to the muscle to the bone, hug in.
Pull your naval up and in, integrate your shoulders, bring them down and back as the shoulder blades move toward the spine. Open your heart.
Press down, lift up, pull in.
Stand still, effortlessly. Allow yourself to feel calm and strong, with less emphasis on doing and more on being. Allow the mind to follow in alignment and you presence yourself to the here and now.
Breathe in and out through your nose, steady and relaxed, as your awareness of your breath keeps you present, in this moment.
Baron Baptiste teaches us that when we fall or lose our true north, when we get caught up in the storm and off center, to just come back and find our tadasana, again and again.
I encourage you to keep coming back to your mountain pose, to your alignment and to your breath. How you stand in tadasana is how you stand in life, so stand tall, steadfast, calm and strong, with an equanimous mind, and an open heart.
Continue your yoga practices including practicing more being and less doing, and I urge you to consider investing in yourself by spending time in meditation. I cannot stress enough how important it is to sit with yourself, being yourself, and letting go of expectations and how you think things should be.
I believe that all experience has something to teach us, and all obstacles have meaning. Our strength is built on adversity, so look at everything, challenges, failures and all, as opportunity to learn and potential to grow.
And finally, practicing being yoga, create some I am statements. Write them down or make a poster with them and hang it up somewhere you will see daily. Remember that what follows “I am” is what you are inviting into your life, what you give energy to. The purpose of your I am statements is to invite positive energy, to remind you to cultivate that in which you need more of in your life. For example, my I AM poster includes words like: Centered, Balanced, Soft, Strong, Creative, Calm and believe it or not, “A Fucking Ray of Sunshine.” Yes, that is one of my I am statements and those that know me often refer to me as that very thing. May peace be with you. Namaste