Another Yoga Lesson

Inspiration: To continue to do my best to stay present regardless of external circumstances.

It was a Wednesday night. I make my way into yoga class preparing for a evening of gymnastics. Just kidding. The teacher, Philip Askew has quite an advanced practice and encourages us students to play. He does one-handed crazy s--t which is great, but not for me in this lifetime.:)

Anyway, back to the important part. Prior to class, I always go to the bathroom. The door was closed, and it appeared class and begun. So I open the door and run across (mindfully) the room to my spot at the other end. My mat was directly facing the door and in my trajectory.  I went back to close it.

Many times during class, the door miraculously opened itself, and many times, I went (leaving my practice) to shut it. My friend was practicing next to me and she smiled as I continually did this. Then the noise outside the room got SO Loud, that I finally took a different approach and placed a bolster behind the door to ensure it would not OPEN yet again.

Each time, I made my way back to my practice, my breath, my intention. Class was wonderful since there were only about ten of us and the crazies who could perform his elite moves were not present. So it was more of a breath-centered flow, but still challenging. Just saying.

Afterwards, I had dinner with my friend who was with me in class and I brought up my experience to her. "Did you notice how many times I got up to close the door?" She just smiled and offered up the following to me. " We will always have distractions of some kind. Our role is to remain present no matter what is going on, to find the sweetness within, to laugh and smile at it. She went on to say that this was a lesson just for me...to realize how I react in these situations." (not verbatim but you get my drift).

I took this in completely, kind of knowing this already, but desiring for the experience to be the way I wanted it to be, instead of embracing this annoyance with an open heart and not reacting. Just noticing. As this situation presented itself in class, it is these situations in many forms that continually show up for us in life. How to we respond? Do we become annoyed, agitated? Wanting to fix things and have it our way like I did?

The more we can surrender into the sweetness that life presents to us in each moment, the more peaceful, loving and open-hearted we become. Think about it the next time something ridiculously annoying presents itself to you and maybe choose differently.

Have a wonderful day!
With Love, Denise