How was meditation for you today? Was it easy to stay in the moment? Or were you distracted? Were you mentally writing a to-do list? What was happening?
The practice of meditation, or even just sitting still, is challenging for many of us, because we are not doing anything, we are not going anywhere, we are not accomplishing anything. And being right here right now can be tough. And to not do anything can even feel like...madness! But let’s take a look at what we consider “normal”. Starting the week on a Monday and wishing it were already Friday. Being in a hurry to get to the next place, next job, next relationship, next event. Not liking the present but putting up with it because of the prospects of its future. People being in the same physical space, but all of them on their phones, on social media, talking to people who are not in front of them, while ignoring those who are. These happen often enough that they are common, they are normal. But this is the true madness— that bec we think happiness is to be pursued in some other time than now, in some other place than here, we ironically suffer in this pursuit of happiness. So what’s a yogi to do to stop this madness? We learn to be here, fully, consciously showing up. We enjoy where we are and whom we are with, even if and especially if we are only by ourselves. We don’t think of ourselves as going somewhere, we experience arriving in every single moment. We don’t think of doing sun salutations so we can get over it and do the “hard stuff”, we enjoy it. We don’t cross the street absent-mindedly because it’s the same route we take 5 days a week to get to work, we enjoy it. We don’t talk about the next vegan meal we’re having while we are still eating the present one, we enjoy it. Happiness is not a destination we go to— that is madness! Happiness is here. Yoga is here. Atha yoga anusasanam.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
March 2020
|