The ways we choose to get out of ourselves, out of the moment, out of tension are infinite. We have endless distractions – ranging from eating and drinking out of emotional upset to working non-stop on a job that is merely a source of income, not a source of fulfillment.
It’s easy to buy into the traps of busy: we use perfectionism, musts and shoulds, comparisons, clinging and not-enoughness to keep us in performance mode most of the time. The trouble is, all the doing does not offer any sense of relief, it just begs for more productivity. Yoga offers us another way. It offers a balance between effort and ease, between abhyasa and vairagya.
How? On the yoga mat, we first have to show up. We have to be available to practise, and just our arrival means that we are committed to growing our capacity to be present. When we are present, we are in our power. That power allows us to reconnect. To reconnect the parts of ourselves that have been drowned out by the busyness and the over-doing. To reconnect to our breath. To reconnect to what really matters to us. Perhaps it is not merely ticking off boxes and accomplishments that ultimately bring us closer to happiness after all?
If we can use the time on our yoga mat to develop a curiosity about HOW we are feeling and WHAT we desire, perhaps we can also use the time on the yoga mat, and the approximations of shapes, to bring us closer to a sense of WHO we are and, ultimately, of WHY we are here.
When we offer ourselves relief from the habitual producing, doing, exerting, we are often surprised by how much feeling and how much opening there is. Sometimes, we are even afraid or completely terrified of sitting still, because it means that in the quiet space there may be room for our true nature to arise…what if it is foreign, or difficult to tolerate, or worse yet, amazing? It’s true, we find ways to be fearful of our own awesomeness. Not just some of us, all of us.
My upcoming workshop at triyoga will be a weekend to explore the ways we run away from our heart’s desires, from our truth, from ourselves, by staying busy, overloading our diaries, keeping online, all without remembering this: it is in moments of disconnecting from all the work and all the media and all the other-ing that we can invite ourselves home to presence. We can cultivate the kind of attunement and attention to ourselves that allows us to be fully in our power. We can learn to relate to others in ways that is boundaried, but beautiful. We can be a part of the flow of life.
Can we achieve all of this in four workshops over one weekend? Perhaps we can open a portal in the direction of presence. Perhaps we can slow down enough, inquire enough, be still enough to allow our connection to ourselves to feel like belonging. Perhaps, just for a start, we can gain the tools required to live more mindfully, more consciously, more fully in our daily lives.
Dr Melody Moore is a clinical psychologist, yoga teacher, and founder of Embody Love Movement, whose mission is to empower girls and women to celebrate their inner beauty, commit to kindness, and create meaningful change in the world.
From Saturday 3rd – Sunday 4th November, she will be leading a weekend of workshops – disconnect to reconnect – with the aim of creating a space away from technology, social media, to-do lists and external cues to reconnect with the heartbeat of life.
She is also leading a daylong for teachers – build your emotional toolbox – on Friday 2nd November. To find out more and to book, click here.
