Being Here Now

Being mother to Indie has brought so many opportunities to deepen the understanding of yoga in action. As practitioners we learn to focus and direct the attention of the mind to one place and keep it unwavering. The mind is a wild animal to tame but with dedication and discipline it becomes accustomed to being here versus traveling into different directions. We can see this in action during practice, in a very simplified form; we are in a room that is geared to support this process, on a mat with no distractions from objects, with a teacher observing us and with other people attempting to do the same thing. 

The real practice is to then extend that into our daily lives. And this, for me anyway, has been the biggest gift motherhood has given me: can I drop everything to be here now, fully immersed in giving the needed attention a little human needs to figure itself out? Can I surrender my own storyline to do my wordly duty?

I use the word duty because like in the Bhagavad Gita, as humans we have duties we choose or are given in this specific incarnation - we can choose to do what's needed to engage in it, and eventually find freedom in that disciplined showing up, or we can choose to disregard it and live in ignorance and suffering. Suffering is inevitable either way, as that is an integrated part of the human experience. There is suffering with a purpose, and suffering with the purpose of ignoring your purpose. I don't know about you, but I find myself choosing daily, if not moment by moment, sometimes the choice is easy, sometimes it's hard. And that's when practice makes us strong.

Join us in the practice of now-ness