YOGA PRACTICE…NOT PERFECT
Have you ever woken up excited to get your Zen on? You don your fave stylish yoga clothes , drive to the expensive gym just to squeeze in an hour of Yoga before going to work for the day. A crowded class, a scramble to put your mat down and ahhhh, you’ve arrived. Then you hear the person next you gossiping, another iPhone ringing, and the loud house music from the main floor of the gym pounding through under the door of the “studio”. And what a reminder… that your practice may not always be perfect.
Though many of us dream of the ideal yoga setting- a peaceful studio on a quiet street surrounded by a calm and supportive community with all day to practice, it may not always be the case. Let’s face it- sometimes we need to take our Zen to go.
This past summer, I had the pleasure of practicing yoga at the Summer Solstice event in Times Square in the heart of the Big Apple. We squeezed our mats right on the super-clean streets of New York in a gated off section of the famous area. A teacher taught through a speaker system and was streamed onto the Times Square jumbotrons. He guided us through backbends, heart openers, Warrior poses and balances… all while being stared at, photographed and spoken to by tourists and passerby. Balancing our Chakras while pedestrians blew cigarette smoke in our faces sparked this contemplation.
There is a reason that it is called a PRACTICE. We are never finished. We never arrive. We simply are on this journey of peace that lasts our lifetime. It may ebb and flow but as long as we continue to practice, the benefit will be peace. It doesn’t matter where or how or in which conditions we experience this practice, but more the intention we bring to it and the commitment to peace that we get out of it. Yoga is UNION. It is the marriage of the breath and the movement. Once we begin our yoga lifestyle, it is understood that we can achieve this goal anywhere at any time.
Whether in your car in traffic, sitting in a park for a five minute meditation, or stretching in an elevator, you can find that Zen! So here’s the challenge. Can you find your peace anytime, anywhere? Can you get the notion that the person with the ringing iPhone has nothing to do with your practice, the cigarette smoke cannot interfere with your yoga breathing, and the tourists taking photos cannot interrupt your Crow Pose? As Gandhi says, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. It is not up to us to control the people or the conditions around us but rather to practice in its midst. By adding to your individual peace and creating one more peaceful person, you are adding to the peace of the planet. SO ROCK ON YOGI!!! LET YOUR ZEN BE CONTAGIOUS!
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