presence & flow

"Having spent the better part of my life trying to either relive the past or experience the future before it arrives, I have come to believe that in between these two extremes is peace"

- Unknown

Do you ever look forward to something like a vacation?  or an event?  You count down the days, you imagine how it'll be in your head. Essentially, you spend your days living an event that has not yet happened.   Your thoughts are occupied with what might be.

Then the big day(s) come.  And you have a blast.  Then it's over.  But, not without adequate Instagram, Facebook & Twitter feed updates and photos.  

Then life returns to normal, the fun has passed and you find yourself looking back and reminiscing.  Remembering how much fun you had, wishing it had lasted longer, wishing you had enjoyed it more, wishing you remembered more.  Of course, you've got a social media documentation of every fun filled moment.  Because, while you were supposed to be having fun - you were documenting your fun for your followers and friends.  You were planning your next social media update.  

Days pass.  Time passes.  Each moment we move into puts another moment into our past experience.  I often look back and wish I had appreciated things, people, places, events more.  Even the mundane.  

It's because we have forgotten how to be present.  To be fully with each and every moment of our lives.  We communicate to the world through interfaces, and the result is that we've stopped experiencing life as it is with the people who are actually physically with us.  I can't even count how many times I've given up opportunity to talk to or play with my children because I have gotten an "important" text message or someone has posted a funny cat video on facebook.  

This week my classes have been focused on finding presence.  I've used balancing asana to help students practice being fully present.  When you are balancing, the moment you lose presence, is the moment you begin to topple.  There are other factors involved with balancing like body alignment, core engagement & grounding/lifting in the right places.  But, it was the lesson of being present I was hoping to convey to students this week.  That, if we can use the mat to practice this skill - maybe we can find it a little more easily off the mat.  

Sometimes the present moment isn't pleasant though.  Life certainly has a tendency to throw challenges  and curve balls at us from time to time.  This is where we can apply the principle of  "flow".  

"Go with the flow"

-Ken Kesey

The concept of flow is part of the practice of being in the moment.  It's also a practice of  "santosha', or contentment.  Being content with the moment - knowing that it is what it is.  Contentment is not about being complacent.  The Serenity Prayer is a good example of how to practice contentment without being complacent.  

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference"

We flow from one moment to the next, and going with the flow means being present enough to fully experience each moment as it arrives.  Mark Sisson, describes this well in a blog post he wrote about flow.

Flow isn't about doing a particular thing as much as losing ourselves in it.  The rhythm of snow shovelling, the creative inspiration of cooking, the abandon of a good hike or run, the precision or inventiveness of our work can all become fodder to flow.  When we let go of the extraneous commentary in our heads, the resentment of the task at hand, the impatience with ourselves, we bring a new engagement to the moment and in the process be surprised. 

A good yoga practice will demand you shut off the commentary in your head or any resentment of the 60 second plank your core vinyasa teacher is demanding of you - a good practice will allow you to fully experience how your body feels as your are holding your plank.  It will ask you to work at finding the best possible alignment to support yourself as you move through each posture, it will bring you to a balance of effort & ease - sattva.  And the more you do this on the mat - the easier finding flow, presence and contentment will become for you off the mat.  You'll notice the co-worker who used to challenge your last bit of  patience is easily dealt with as you practice tadasana and ujjayi breath - your stillness & softness in the body & mind transcends the mat bringing ease and a centred approach to other aspects of your life.

We feel good after a yoga class because we have stopped multi tasking for an hour or so.  We've created a relationship with our body and with our breath.  We need to do this.  Multi tasking is an over rated skill and it's detrimental to our emotional well being.  How can we focus fully on one one thing if we split our focus between many things?  Single tasking feels good, because it gives us the experience of flow.

I don't write this blog, or teach my classes as someone who is skilled in the things I am writing or teaching about.  My teaching is my practice.  I approach these topics and present them from a position of humility and the recognition that we are in this journey together.  I recognize my own need to find more balance, more stillness, more presence and more flow.  

Spiritualized - "Let it Flow"

Practice

seated ujjayi breath (even inhalation & exhalation)

Supta Padangusthasana

Suyra Namaskar A with lunges from B (focus on flow)

Tadasana (feet together)

Tadasana (one foot directly behind the other - find balance using feet/core/breath/focus)

Virabhadrasana 1 (both feet forward, narrow stance - focus on balance and stability)

Vrksasana 

Trikonasana into Ardha Chandrasana

Reclined Hip openers (agnistambhasana twisting after holding)

Supta baddha konasana

Savasana

Namaste.