 It's windy out there at the moment. I can hear it on the window, and can see the close-to horizontal rain. I can also feel a surge of excitement when the weather takes a dramatic turn - which seems to happen more when wind is involved.
The British love the weather, we get a lot of it. It changes our environment so rapidly to one that is easier or harder to navigate day-by-day. I remember my kids when they were little, they seemed to get 'whipped up' into tricky behaviours when the wind was up. It used to be my least favourite kind of weather. I've always sworn off wind-surfing as it basically involves standing up with a sail in the wind, which seems like my idea of a bad day. Then someone once said 'think of the wind as blowing away the cobwebs'. Try seeing wind as being refreshing instead of hiding away from it. Try embracing it, let it blow right through you, clear you out, blow away old moods and grievances, and then enjoy the post-storm calm as a fresh start. Things are swept clean and there is a sort of purity that remains. This has helped me embrace windy and rainy weather. To enjoy it as a positive. Appreciate the sun when it's shining as the contrast is so stark. I've lived in sunny places where the weather is pretty predictable for weeks and months on end. Wall-to-wall sunshine and warmth. It is lovely, but it also gets pretty samey. The variety we enjoy offers the chance to fully savour the good stuff more when it is here. No matter what the weather is where you are, there is always an embrace to be found. The cliche that says 'the sun is always shining' is of course completely true - somewhere it is. And the practices of yoga help us reframe our relationship to clouds, which helps the sunshine stay in view. In the Yoga Sutra, an ancient text that holds some of the earliest writings on yoga and a whole lot of wisdom, there is a verse that teaches the practice of 'cultivating opposite thoughts and emotions' (Chap II.34). The turnaround. Things that are bothering you or causing disatisfaction can be reframed. It's an idea the Stoics employed too. Why practice this? Then your day, and your life, can feel a whole lot better. Try it :-)
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 One thing you discover as you age, is that things ache more. There are more sore bits, injuries take longer to heal and niggles can frustrate our efforts to be pain free.
The body simply isn't as resilient as it was, and we need to work harder to maintain stability and mobility. We are all aging, and we can't wait for a pain-free day to do something positive to turn the tide. It takes more effort to hold our ground than it ever has before and waiting will only set us back further. I had a recent minor skin surgery (thankfully nothing to worry about). It didn't stop me practicing. I had to modify my yoga postures and work around any forward bending so that the stitches could work their magic. My sprained ankle a couple of years back when I slipped into a hole in the park didn't derail my practice. My foot went black and blue and was swollen so cross legged was off the cards, but I simply had to avoid things that hurt, and ensure that I showed up to my practice with extra care and attention. A bit like if I have a sore in my mouth, I don't stop cleaning my teeth. I just brush them more carefully, respect the sore bits, but take care of the rest of my precious teeth and gums in the meantime. If your waiting for the day that nothing aches to get to your mat . . . The Pros - there are lots! Working with an injury can be brilliantly insightful. You'll discover an easily enhanced focus as the sheer risk of not paying attention is far greater. It is easy to view injuries as bad. Granted, no-one invites them, we all want to enjoy the freedom that good health affords. But discomfort is such an amazing opportunity for self-enquiry. Instead of fighting against, and getting frustrated by, your ailments and symptoms, treat the sensations of the cold / achey hip / swollen ankle etc., as the body giving you information about what it can and can't do today. Be curious about the patterns in the mind, the way judgement and negative bias creeps in, and the potential for your intentions to be derailed by over-thinking. All patterns worth getting to know. It is tempting to let movement and meditative practices drop off the priority list in the face of discomfort, congestion, fear etc. but it can be such an interesting and valuable time to practice. It affords new insights and rewards that are very different than if you were feeling fine. And the yoga still helps, even when it is more gentle than perhaps you would choose. You always feel better, more grounded, relaxed, energised, you'll recover sooner, and it can even adjust your relationship to the ailment to become more positive. I found Covid completely fascinating. I had new sensations in my body. My smell went completely. And mentally I knew I had 'it' - the dreaded thing that was sweeping across the world. It was in me, right now. If I allowed it, it could feel a bit scarey. But also there was a level of excitement. How interesting?! That thing that everyone is talking about, I get to experience it first hand, before anyone else I know. Was I going to be okay? Who knew. A completely new experience - how curious, a new adventure. I was lucky enough to have it while on holiday and at no point did I feel so ill that I contemplated hospital. There was even something of a relief at getting it. There was no need to avoid getting it any more, at least for a few weeks after I felt bullet proof. A layer of worry that I didn't even realise I had been carrying around had vanished. That was worth discovering - that I didn't even realise I was that worried. I had discovered a lot about what 'worry' in its more subtle guise looks and feels like. Worth knowing. And from there I just had to go with what unfolded next. My yoga practice was a revelation. My postures and breath felt different. Each practice held a sense of fascination at what it was actually like to be in a body with Covid. The physical sensations, plus the stuff in my mind. The temptation of dramatic narrative and fear of what might happen next, drawing me away from what was actually my direct experience of what was happening. The vividness of experiencing my new body, within the familiar ground of my daily practice, helped deepen my practice and level of attentiveness and meditation. All brilliant insights to carry forwards. Ultimately life is often out of our hands. We like to think we are in control, we often try to be which can take so much energy. Illness and injury are times when situations are taken out of your hands in a visceral way. And this has great value and benefit. This doesn't necessarily mean showing up to class with a streaming cold, but show up to something. Show up online and take it gently, take a short video, do your own personal practice. There is always something you can do, and it is always worth the effort. The old adage life is a journey, not a destination, applies at its best here. The journey is possibly the opposite of what you would have chosen, but there is plenty to enjoy anyway, it might just take a shift of mindset. Definitely something worth practicing.  Did you almost not make it to your mat this week? Did your hip ache more than usual? Or have you missed a week a couple of weeks and need to re-establish the habit?
The hardest part of a movement practice can be simply showing up, even when we don't feel like it. The challenge of the practice, the physical and mental 'progress' has its own inherent motivation - but what motivates you to show up? Initially we need to establish a baseline that feels like it is meeting our needs and goals. Finding a sense of reward that motivates us to continue showing up. We need to feel like the forward bend is getting easier or doing something good, the breath is becoming more spacious and accessible, the back is less achey, our mood feels lifted after practice. At first, we need to meet the resistance to getting on the mat head-on. Find out what the obstances are (Netflix? Instagram? Bad weather? Kids or work derailing our days? Twingey back?) and figure out how to step on to the mat even when life doesn't pause and make space for it. Showing up messy is much better than not showing up at all. We can often get a little lost in the idea of tangible progress, and overlook the more subtle aspects of yoga which are possibly even more valuable. The improved sleep, the less urging for snacks as our anxiety isn't as heightened, the increased patience with our kids, colleagues and neighbours, the inherent 'okayness' with our day. We need to acually 'do' yoga for anything to begin to improve. I used to clean my teeth because my parents told me too. Because my dentist insisted and I was scared of him. And now I do it because it just doesn't feel right to leave them uncleaned and I know I still want to have my teeth decades from now. It is a baked in part of my day that I would go to some lengths to achieve, even if I lost my toothbrush. This built in motivation and habit of practice happens in yoga practice. It takes a while to get to this stage of stability. Initially the effort is showing up and noting the motivating rewards that will keep you coming back. The sheer joy and pleasure of it will eventually shine through. It might very well become the most joyous and pleasurable habit that you ever learn to cultivate, which positively influences the very foundation of your life. To help you get to your mat, it is helpful to pre-commit to your practice. Plan ahead, schedule it in, prioritise it. It's important. Identify your obstacles and show up anyway. We need yoga more than ever. If you haven't even got 5-minutes for practice, set aside at least 10 and show up. You'll be so glad you did.  The uplifting sunshine has been soooooo welcome this week.
When the sun shines I always remind myself that the sun is of course always shining.... somewhere. Today it shines on us. While we can't rely on the weather for joy and good vibes, especially in this rather drizzly part of the world, it is so much easier, isn't it? My week has been a doozy, but I'm here at the end of it enjoying the nodding daffodils. Even with life's challenges and ups and downs, we still have access to an inner stability and steadiness. Our inner weather isn't reliant external clouds. My yoga practice, my moving, breathing and meditational practices, brings me back to this place of calm, spacious ease every day. The more I practice keeping that connection alive and vibrant, the easier it is to draw upon it in the midst of a challenging circumstance (or teenage tantrum). This is a life skill that is definitely worth cultivating. Part of the practice of yoga, is this invitation to put aside our usual operating mode - the mode of keeping busy, anticipating whats coming up, worrying about it, prepping and planning for it, and so on. And discovering that there is another place to stand. In our yoga we can discover that there is actually a space, a moment, where we can fully and completely arrive. Arrive where? Right here. Try stopping for one moment. Stop chasing the next thing, the next thought, the next sentence, the next worry that wants to fill the pause. Notice that there is no problem in this immediate moment to solve, but a quiet, calm presence that was there all along. The problem that does need solving will still be there after this pause, and you'll be able to come at it with a fresh, calm perspective and engage with it more fully. In our yoga practice, the pauses on our mat between our poses look like nothing. They look like we are waiting for the next pose. Waiting for the next instruction to guide us. The pauses might even feel boring in contrast to the busy sensibility that drives most of our day. But the ultimate reward of practice is the full arrival in each moment. And the moments can be most readily noticed in the pauses between poses, between breaths, and between thoughts. They are there, they are subtle, at first they are fleeting and feel non-existent. Yet these moments can be the most fruitful part of our endeavours. Don't worry if you haven't noticed any of this yet. At first the poses are the stuff that make sense, that fit in to our modern mind-set of doing more things to sort out the other things. And over time the unfolding of pauses will become an unlocked treasure that, like the sunshine, is always there waiting to become visible.  I was in a park recently and these wonderful people dressed as sugar cubes were making their way down the path smiling and being rather exuberant as they went. Almost everyone they encountered broke into a smile. They were people in silly outfits having fun, disarming everyone with relentless joy and enthusiasm.
I think there is research backing this up, but even faking a smile helps you feel better. Sharing a smile with random strangers in the street helps you feel happier. The world needs a little more joy at the moment and it starts with each of us. The news can seem bleak, the weather grim, the trees are a little bare etc. But that doesn't mean there isn't an abundant amount of joy to be found. It perhaps isn't as obvious and we might be out of the habit of looking. Don't get stuck thinking everything is awful. It really isn't, even if on the surface it might appear that way. Okay, we don't have to go as far as dressing up as sugarcubes (I think they were being paid, promoting a sugar free drink or something), but start with smiling every opportunity you get. Fake it till you make it. Wave to the next person who stops at the zebra crossing for you. Wish the cashier in the supermarket a lovely rest of day. It seems trite, but it is infectious and we all need to be reminded that it starts with us. Make someone elses day. It feels good! Of course yoga helps with this. Consider it part of your daily practice. It helps us catch the downward trajectory of negative thoughts and reframe them. Note if you are feeling disappointed or frustrated with your practice and remind yourself to let go of the analysis and judgement. Pay closer attention to the sheer fact and wonder that you are breathing and moving today. There is joy to be found in each breath and remembering to recognise that is something worth practicing. |
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