Yoga and meditation have always been the places where I go to sort my head out, deal with any problems and come back to a sense of balance in my body/mind. Many times I’ve gone to yoga – stressed, anxious and worried, even angry and after a class, I literally feel like I’ve stretched my life back together again. The big issues don’t feel so overwhelming and the smaller stuff that I’m sweating fades away until it rears its ugly head again! Lying on a mat, practicing pranayama, asana, meditation and relaxing with other like-minded beings thankfully, for me, has always been a safe and very healing space. That sense of all being well in my world I call being in “flow”.
But, we know that life is a series of ups and downs, or isn’t all a bed of roses. We’ve really come to realise this year that we really have no control over anything! On my meditation teacher training course, my teacher Davidji talked about life being a set of curves and talked about the dhri curve. We may be at our peak right now, everything going wonderfully well, career, family, relationships all going smooth,this is when we’re in a state of flow, we feel connected to everyone and everything and everything is wonderful. Then things start to go wrong, your fighting with your partner, your children are being horrible to you, you’ve put on weight, everyone’s annoying you and we start to gradually descend the curve till we’re at the bottom of that curve. I do love that image of when we’re at rock bottom there is only one way to go, but what Davidji was talking about is that this is not an awful space to be in but rather your time to plan. This is the time to practice self-care, to figure out what you want and need in life, to learn, study, meditate and keep practicing being the best version of you regardless of your life circumstances. This is the time to sow your seeds of intention for how you want you life to be. This being in between two curves, still at the bottom is just to prepare for the next climb of the curve. It was eye-opening for me. I love this perspective on life. Instead of being down on yourself, feeling sorry for ourselves for how things are, maybe indulging in a pity party we get to choose another mindset even when life isn’t exactly as we want it to be. I like the idea of this being a time, not to wallow in our own mire, but to plan for the future, maybe learn something new, take some time for ourselves, whatever we need to get ourselves out of a funk.
Human beings are hardwired for negativity. When I heard this first I have to say it blew me away, in my younger years I would have been quite positive but as a perimenopausal woman I know I have to work to keep my mood and energy lifted and sometimes work hard even in pre covid times to keep myself balanced.
Covid for all of us has given us a whole new set of problems to deal with. For some being isolated from family and friends, for others being with family wayyyy too much can be challenging. We also collectively don’t have the “outs” that we had before. It’s not so easy to meet friends for coffee, you can’t attend classes, go for a swim or to the gym or whatever your outlet is. It might be a while since we’ve seen our older family members and we’ve been in this sense of house arrest for a long time. It has taken its toll on us, emotionally and for most of us a bit physically too. (Covid stone anyone?)
As yogis, coming to yoga isn’t just attending a class, it’s where we find community, where we get to connect with like-minded beings who we know are using the practices of yoga and meditation like us to keep sane! Yoga is where we come to relax, restore, breathe and practice together. It’s lovely to be with your tribe learning, moving, meditating, or doing yoga. I know at the moment its not possible to meet in person but online yoga classes are the next best thing.
When lockdown first happened I honestly thought it would be for a month or two so went online teaching free classes to whoever wanted them. After a few months I realised that this is the way things are going to be so time to try and get this business of yoga and meditating back up and running.
It has really helped me through this period to keep having to think of class themes, modifications for poses and the normality of teaching yoga even though everyone is in tiny boxes on my screen!
One thing that I’ve been very aware of this year as I’ve had the time to slow down, to meditate and practice yoga a lot more is my energy. My physical energy and the energy that I’m putting out to the people that I live with and interact with, my own ripple. Also noticing that I can be taking in other people’s negative energies is interesting. I realised after one particularly gloomy week that I felt depleted that what I had been doing was taking in the energy of friends who were going through some really tough times. I was dreaming about them, worrying about them (what good does that ever do?) letting their energy into my space. This was a big lesson for me and one of the things that I don’t know if I would have been aware of had I not been practicing so much meditation. Also on social media, I realised even in yoga land there was a certain amount of toxicity creeping in so time to bow out. I’ve compiled a little list of things that help me stay in the flow, that sense of all being well in my world, life being good and my body mind and what comes out of my mouth being in alignment……..mostly!
1. MOVE – it doesn’t matter what you do, a walk, yoga, (I started doing dance fitness over lockdown this has been fun), just make sure that you enjoy it and it’s not another chore that you have to do.
2. MEDITATE – get quiet, figure out what’s going on inside for you, stuff comes up when we meditate, and it is normally what we need to witness and be aware of. That and the minute I start to meditate my “to do” list jumps up at me.
If being silent and still is a bit too much practice guided meditation, with the likes of Insight Timer, Soundcloud and Spotify to name a few apps there are lots of guides to help us meditate.
3. CHAT – get on the phone to your bestie or someone who you have crack with, get out of your own funky headspace. Call your sister or mother, but don’t allow yourself to emotionally vomit on them, sometimes calling to listen can be good too. Maybe organise a play date for yourself!
4. JOURNAL – I am getting better at this, I would have called myself the world’s worst journaller, but I am trying to do better. Write down whatever’s in your mind, get it from your head to your computer/notebook and let it go.
5. GET INTO NATURE – take some time out to feel the grass under your feet, listen to the sounds of birds and dogs barking, appreciate the flowers and trees around you, get out of your head and into the space that we are just a part of this giant cosmos.
6. PLAY YOUR FAVOURITE MUSIC – This possibly comes under MOVE also but put on your favourite chunes, have a bop around the kitchen or in the car, embarrass your kids, enjoy those 80’s power ballads, and dance like no one is watching!
Hope you guys enjoyed my musings, for information on yoga classes or meditation classes contact me, Anna, on 0863892574 or send me an email, I’m always happy to connect.
