Tuning out, tune in and farther out

I am sitting in a hotel breakfast room in the shadows of the mountains in Colorado. The air is crisp. The sun is slowly creeping higher in the sky, though later than what I am used to in Halifax. I am in the process of trying to adjust after a 19 hour day of travel.

And I am so very happy. Happy to put the phone, the computer, the Facebook, the blog away. Happy to just rest. Oh... It will be a week of asana, meditation, conversation, walks, dinners, social engagement, dishes and sweeping. But I will rest in it. 

My love of Yoga trainings is that I am fully present. I do not plan ahead or ruminate in the past. I sit with where I am.

Perhaps you can't go on a retreat. But go to class this week and rest in each pose, present to the experience, the whole experience. How does the tight hamstring feel when it is experienced in the landscape of the whole body experience? 

So much of our life is lived holding tightly to one part - usually what we dislike the most. Broaden that experience. In the tremendous mountains, the air, the sangha, it is a bigger landscape in which we see the world is beautiful, even if there is something challenging before us.

Rest in the pose and ask yourself, "how would this feel if I couldn't feel the discomfort?"

Shanti