Friday, May 11, 2007

Grow like May Flowers


I've been meaning to share this, it's from the monthly e-newsletter from my studio. Here is the message we received for May:

The April showers are gone and it’s a great time to grow, expand, and flourish in May. But, unlike May flowers, sometimes we allow distractions to limit our growth. As we navigate our hectic city lives, we often are distracted by the small things - the person taking up two seats on the crowded train or talking loudly on a cell phone in a restaurant. It becomes easy to lose touch with our innate sense of compassion and momentarily forget our capacity to grow, expand, and become better people. Yoga can help us focus on what's important, tune out the distractions, and grow like May flowers in all aspects of our lives.

Yoga definitely tunes things out and I've definitely observed that this week in particular. It was a good Yoga Week. It is hard to explain, but I can tell you that throughout the day, I'll lose my focus and think about bills, what to do this weekend, moving, doctor's appointments, etc. For some reason, classes this week have been a mental escape. So this is what it's like to be present? :) It is such a wonderful feeling, like my brain said "Ok shut down" and I became mechanical-->I can't think of a better word without it sounding cold, it is not meant to.

I've been making more time for meditation and it has left me inspired spiritually. Om Shanti wrote an entry recently about mediation in the yoga studio or lack there of. It's a pretty good entry. I wish my classes used it more. I think this is why I enjoy going to Jivamukti because it does play a big role in the lesson. I try to do it in the morning for five minutes, I also do it before class as people are still showing up. Sure we all need it, but I really need the meditation practice just as much as an asana practice.

5 comments:

Linda-Sama said...

I can not teach a class without incorporating meditation or at least "sitting in stillness" for the last 10, 15 or sometimes even 20 minutes...that's where the rubber meets the road, baby! :)

It does my heart good when my students tell me that "10 minutes is too short! We want to sit longer!"

Marilyn P. Sushi said...

I wanna take one of your classes! :)

Lisa said...

I love this post! It's so true that the meditation part is where we Westerners kind of fall down. We want the tough poses! The sweaty poses! Just being present is SO hard and it feels SO good!!

hillarysyogapractice said...

wanted to share a cupcake site - vegan and cant wait til they are in LA. the cool thing is 15 minutes of meditation can really fill you up if you cant do the work on the hatha yoga mat... http://www.sweetcakesnyc.com

namaste, hillary

Mary said...

I incorporate meditation into my practice too and probably because since the first day I tried yoga, I was taught to. I think it's really important. Everyone does yoga for different reasons but I need to find that time to be still. Thanks for the posting an extract from your newsletter! This post made me smile, lots :-)