As I come back feeling fabulous from a totally reviving holiday, I feel so grateful to be able to come back and teach what I love and am passionate about. I feel lucky as I get to do what I find continually intriguing and fabulous and I know there are lots of people out there who feel their work don’t really fit them well. There may be resentment at resuming those tasks for the year. And fears about not getting exactly what you want, exactly the way you want. It’s part of our human experience and it seems no one is immune – Prompted by a gunned up armaguard truck on the road, my 4 year old and I had a discussion about robbers this week. The concepts ruminated until several hours later she asked me where Santa lived. I (not for the first time) explained about the North Pole. Then she asked if robbers could get there, concerned about someone stealing all the presents. I did some fast talking (heavy snow, reindeer guardians, protective elves) and I think now her mind is at ease. But I rest my case: From an early age, we worry about not getting enough.
So how can we bring more of this good stuff into our lives, homes, duties and psyches? This week in class we have done a practice on letting go of the struggle that arises when things are not exactly as we’d wish them. (It’s where Helen Gurley Brown in the Cosmopolitan heyday really did we women a disservice with the ‘having it all’ idea.) When you are stressed upset, worried or angry, you are living in a state of physiological arousal. Their sympathetic nervous systems (“fight or flight”) will be activated more than is healthy for you. This occurs too when you worry and struggle to get what you feel you are missing. You can use yoga breathing to activate the ‘rest and restore’ part of the nervous system (the parasympathetic nervous system) by prolonging your exhalation when compared to the inhalation. We have done this this week in some of my classes. If you missed out, just ask me when you arrive for your next class. You can even build up over time to an inhalation: exhalation ratio of 1:2.
You can even (under the guidance of a teacher please) add on a pause at the end of the exhalation. Here you can drop into an amazing stillness, where a wonderful calmness pervades. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 1:34 states that we can develop a calm, content, compassionate mind by enjoying the brief space after the exhalation and before the next inhalation. Pracchardhana vidharanabhyam va pranasya translates as: After exhalation, during the stillness before inhalation, there is calmness. This can remove distractions. (These distractions that prevent us from experiencing our true peaceful state and therefore prevent us from experiencing the state of yoga, or stillness of the mind).
If you are worried about ‘getting yours’ you can also practice gratitude. A meditation teacher on Koh Samui read me this quote by Melody Beattie about 10 years ago and it has remained with me since:
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
Shift your thoughts away from what you feel you don’t have and, ahem, can’t possibly be happy without. Move your focus instead to the abundant things you do have. You’ll find there is masses. Just look at where we live on the northern beaches guys! Sunshine, salty air, rolling waves, good parks and trees: all free and abundant to enjoy. In my classes this week we will be closing each session with a gratitude meditation. Remember, the ancient yogis found meditation to be the key to spiritual transformation. As you feel the holiday feeling slipping away, remember all that joy and relaxation is contained within us already. Nothing needs to change and we only need to space to go visit and connect with it again. As life speeds up again, the yoga room is a good opportunity to take that space. At home, it’s as simple as putting pen to paper to write a list of the things you are grateful for. Or come join us at the studio, (and remember you need to pre-book for every class please.) You will finish the class with a smile on your face that’s hard to wipe off and you will feel how it will uplift you in every way.
– Christina
PS If you want to remember with gratitude, your life partner book yourselves in for our Valentines Partner Experience. Guaranteed to be bonding for you both you will emerge feeling fresh and fabulous