Look at this photo of nearly 1,000 people practicing yoga:
Photo by Sandhya Dharmadas at the First Annual International Yoga Day in S.F.
Okay, now look at the photo again:
Everyone in this photo is practicing yoga.
No one's in fancy postures. No advanced pranayama. Just 1,000 people coming together for a simple silent meditation.
This simplicity is, perhaps, what I love most about this practice. I mean, look at the photo- it looks pretty simple, right? Sure, you can master the King of Postures, Sirsasana (headstand) with a diligent practice. Your forehead might even come to kiss your knees in Paschimottanasana, someday too. These are beautiful postures and they serve us in ways that benefit the length and stability of muscle tone and grounding, renewed oxygen and spinal health...but these coveted postures are not the end all be all of our practice. A steady meditation practice takes time. And if you're one whose brain won't stop and you tend to check off your to-do list, mentally, meditation might be that thing that seems unattainable. I'm not living in your head...how dare I assume you're able to get all those thoughts to stop, even if just briefly? If you practice asanas consistently and find that it does the job in terms of blowing off some steam, you might wonder if meditation is really even worth it.
It is.
Give yourself two minutes- just two minutes each morning or evening, to start. Set a timer, find a spot in which you are allowed complete silence, peace and stillness. Cross your legs. Count your breath. Count sheep. Count the number of cocktails you'll let yourself have when you're done with this practice. Focus on a word. Say it over and over and over again, with each breath. Imagine your favorite place and be still in that place. Look at a cute bearded man on your Pinterest board and commit his face to memory, so there's nothing else in focus...just for two minutes. It doesn't matter. Just be. The to-do list will still be there when you're done. That project you haven't completed, yet for work, will still be there when you're done. Life will always still.be.there. It's not the task itself that matters...it's the way we process and perform those tasks. And life. Period. Take two minutes to shut.it.down, be still and with some practice, you might find that the drive for speed becomes less important and that you're actually able to do more by slowing down. Coming to a meditative posture is similar to showing up on the mat for asana practice. A good teacher will tell you that it was never the postures that mattered, really...it was the fact that you just showed up that really mattered. Just getting in to Easy Pose is enough to inspire, my friends. Trust me, it's enough.
Take these two minutes and breathe. Just breathe. Focus on your word, handsome face or cocktail, just as long as it's the only thing in your mind. Practice often enough and one day, after two minutes, your timer will go off and you'll come to find a little present...one day, you will have thought of absolutely.nothing.for.two.whole.minutes.
And you will smile. And you will meet your to-do list with a calmed sense of mind. Better yet? That to-do list won't feel so daunting. Wahlah- welcome to meditation.
This is my beautiful friend and teacher, Rachel Koontz sittin' pretty in Sukhasana (Easy Pose) I love her small smile in this sweet pic. This is what it looks like when you leave the to-do list...just for a moment... and it's beautiful.
Photo courtesy of Lucid Reflections
Sukhasana or 'Easy Pose,' is really anything but easy for a good many of us.
And, that's okay. You gotta give it a hot minute.
And to be quite frank, after fifteen years of this practice, I still find meditation to be, at times, the most challenging part of my personal practice. While I do love a good, solid push through a 60-minute flow class, it's the stillness of meditation that has become the most valuable piece of my daily practice.
Co-author of the book, Wanderlust: A Modern Yogi's Guide to Discovering Your Best Self, Brook Cosby writes this about the benefits of meditation:
Photo taken form Jeff Krasno's book, Wanderlust: A Modern Yogi's Guide to Discovering Your Best Self
Practicing the stillness of a simple seated posture took some time. When I took this part of practice more seriously, I noticed something funny and maybe a touch sad. I actually began to feel guilty for the time spent, here, in this small little space. Thoughts gathered, spun and flew. Emotions were stirred and memories became my very breath...until one day someone suggested a technique that changed everything: "give yourself permission to witness those thoughts and distractions and then give yourself permission to let 'em go right on by. And never judge yourself harshly by the thoughts that arise."
And breathe.
Don't spend precious prana or energy pushing your thoughts and stories away. Rather, acknowledge them with kindness and allow them to exist. And then allow them to simply float by.
I know. I know. It sounds really simplistic. And that's kind of my point: GET SIMPLE. To see those things that distract me from the present and see them gently and with a sense of kindness has been a challenge for me. It's taken a lot of practice for me to see some of these thoughts, memories and distractions with a sense of kindness. There's actually a sense of guilt too. I won't lie. To sit quietly for just 10 minutes twice a day has taken some work. To remove a sense of guilt for allowing myself the time has also taken some effort. We get so caught up in pace. We're led to believe that the faster we move, the more we accomplish, the more space we fill our days with equates to how successful we are. And, I think it's hogwash. It's become a race to the line and we find ourselves so proud when folks say comment "How's she get so much done?" It's this pressure to do that takes us away from the being part of life.
Two minutes. Set the timer. Shut.It.Down. Do it right now. Just be.
And then, hell, go ahead and rock it in your Headstand, just 'cause it's fun.
Love and Light,
B
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