Today started out stormy. It blew my plans for not one but two walks with some girlfriends. However, it did allow me to stay in my jammies a bit longer and have that extra cup of coffee, so the turn of events didn’t bum me out too much.
Around 9:00, the guilt overtook me. I really needed to clean my sons’ bathroom, as it was overdue. After completing that little job, and then moving on to my office because that also needed a cleaning, the storm still hadn’t let up. What to do now? Hmmm, no one at home but me, stormy morning, coffee is almost gone…. what a perfect time to enjoy some yoga!
So I put on my yoga music, grabbed one of my yoga lessons, and proceeded to slow down my breath and center my thoughts. Ah, sweet yoga!
If you are a yogi, you understand the high one can get from the experience. Believe me, I have known highs in my day, but none can beat a yoga high. To feel your heart beating, to become aware of all sounds, textures, vibrations around you. Your thoughts focus on the movement of your body. You feel each muscle as you move. You pay attention to any aches that you may be feeling, and send blessings to them. As you move into your practice, you begin breathing a bit harder, you become very tuned into your physical body. At that time, you draw in your spirit, you center your awareness around that moment, erasing any other thoughts that might want to creep into your head. And then the stretching – there is nothing better, especially to a forty year old woman! The holding of poses, the relaxing of the muscles as you attempt to move deeper into the stretch without hurting yourself. Yoga stretching always feels like a reward to me. It is the gift I give my middle-aged body. I always wish I could spend more time stretching. And then there is the final relaxation – the frosting on the cake. I find this difficult often times, because my mind likes to wander, to plan what is next. So it’s great when I can just totally let go and relax so much that I might begin to go into a light sleep.
This morning, after my wonderful yoga practice, I went into thebathroom. As I gazed in the mirror, I saw this very beautiful being radiating love back at me. It was me, of course, but I had never thought of how yoga makes us all look so much younger, lighter…beautiful. Now imagine being in some loose fitting clothes to practice yoga, no make-up, hair pretty disheveled. And yet seeing beauty.Tomorrow I teach yoga. I am going to draw my attention, and my yoga students’ attention, to the beauty we radiate after we have practiced yoga.
Namaste