Waiting
"Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don't want the present. You don't want what you've got, and you want what you haven't got. With every kind of waiting, you unconsciously create inner conflict between your here and now, where you don't want to be, and the projected future, where you want to be. This greatly reduces the quality of your life by making you lose the present.
There is nothing wrong with striving to improve your life situation. You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life. Life is primary. Life is your deepest inner Being. It is already whole, complete, perfect. Your life situation consists of your circumstances and your experiences. There is nothing wrong with setting goals and striving to achieve things. The mistake lies in using it as a substitute for the feeling of life, for Being. The only point of access for that is the Now." Ekhart Tolle, The Power of Now
Over the last couple of weeks in class we have been considering how we can be more present. We have connected to our bodies and our breath, both are always with us and always present moment. This is a key practice in yoga, being with the body/mind as much as possible.
But it is not easy. When we connect to the body and the breath THE CHALLENGE is how long we can stay there, without force or effort but with patience and an openness to what we find there. THE PRACTICE is to keep doing this over and over - feeling the body, observing the breath, watching the mind wander and then bringing it back with compassion. THE LEARNING is what causes the mind to wander - thoughts, emotions, feelings, sounds, sensations in the body... All these things are fleeting, they pass through our awareness, they only stay if we attach to them with more thinking or analysis. THE PEACE is to be open and accepting of everything that comes into our awareness exactly as it is, to be with it however joyous or more likely difficult it is, as it is. When we do this we let go and then we find we can just BE.
We all find ourselves waiting. Waiting for this phase in human history to be over, for the solution, for the answer. When we project ourselves forward into a future we cannot know, we are missing what is happening NOW.
Ask yourself what is happening now? It might be a positive moment, or a difficult moment, it might be somewhere in-between. But that is what is actually happening now, and that is ok.
Look out for those little moments day to day that bring us joy - the first cuppa in the morning, the sunlight on our face, the sound of our children laughing, the rainbows in the windows, the breath in our lungs.
In class we've been using awareness of the breath and the body to anchor ourselves, give us balance and bring us into the present moment. We can do this often throughout our day. This steadying process helps us to take a moment to be present with how we are feeling and to respond to that from a place of peace, calm and compassion.