First, let me say this. Thank goodness it is summer...and I work at a school and get to actually live for 3 months instead of merely managing life. Yikes! Truly, I don't know how people stay in the grind; day in, day out. They are super troopers. Me, I thrive on down time. It gives me a chance to look at things more closely. Inspect them. Admire them. Give them my undivided attention. See them in another light. Take for instance, these flowers that I might just rush past on my way to and from work, soccer, and errands if it weren't summer.
Second, let me say that I went on yoga retreat in March and I've been wanting to blog about it since the moment I returned, except.........I didn't know what to write.
I had a wonderul time. My personal practice blossomed in new ways. My teaching became more refined. My synthesis and application of the hatha yoga system became more whole. And, yet, because I didn't have that huge AHA moment of inspiration, I was unsure of what to share. That is, until today when I had some down time and was looking at that iris so close through the camera lens that it became something completely different to me. Observing it closely transformed it from ordinary to extraordinary and inspiring. And I realized that was what had happened on my yoga retreat. I hadn't been given any new, earth shattering information. I hadn't suddenly experienced kundalini rising. It was easy to overlook what had happened because it was simple.
I experienced old concepts, but in a new way.
I mean, no offense to my amazing guru and hatha instructor at the Temple of Kriya Yoga. But ....we did mainly the same things with mostly the same directions. Yet, somehow, those things made sense in a different way. And I believe that can be boiled down to one thing:
I was perceiving the teachings from a new place, a new awareness, a freshly built consciousness. One that I did not have in 2001, or 2002, or 2006 when I last attended retreat. All of my daily practice; all of my perceived successes and failures, all of my doing yoga and not doing yoga, all of my child rearing and house cleaning had meant something; they had a multiplied effect on restructuring my consciousness.
My point is: Don't get down on your practice -- whatever it is or isn't, there is benefit in doing and not doing and discovery and experience and reflection. Stay committed even after the beginner's high and intermediate's plateau, take my word for it. There is more. There is always more.
Too often we stop doing what we love or what is good for us because we want to see immediate results and progress every single moment. Don't fall in that trap. Stay the course.
I know it is easy to become disillusioned with anything once its novelty has worn off.
I know it is difficult to stay completely enthusiastic and commited to what we consider the mundane, daily tasks of life.
I know it is sometimes even difficult to stay commited and enthusiastic to what we love and find beautiful because there are just so many things in this world designed to distract our attention.
But I also know that there really is no more valuable gift we have to give than our attention. Pay attention to what you're paying attention to and feel the subtle shifts in your consciousness, perception, and life begin.
Start seeing the familiar, ordinary world around you with a new lens of perception and allow yourself to feel amazed. You deserve it.
