Presence

Beginnings and endings are moments that are creating fullness for our experience in life. We are constantly expanding and retracting, learning deeper layers of our own life. The awareness of these moments support us in opening and closing ourselves on and off our yoga matt. Within each and every single moment of life there is the beginning and ending which holds a powerful drive in being truly involved in our lives, being present. Our presence as a whole is in the process of integrating into our humanity, while first each one of us will be unfolding and releasing the layers of our false self. As nature demonstrates with a blooming flower, petals form and eventually start to open, which then drop until the flower has completed being a flower, the plant continues to grow more and more. In each moment, Mother Nature is open to the flow of being. There is no mind to tell the flower, if you lose that petal, you won’t be lovely anymore! There is presence in all things and this consist of subtlities which our practice is aligning us with. What are our highest intentions for our practice?

In our life, there is a typical theme that plays out, avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. While this happens in a more unconscious manner, we can cultivate intentions into our life from a conscious space, like our yoga mat, relationships, and everyday life. The abundance of opportunities are found when we can become present within our life. Sometimes, we are not able to recognize what is truly happening around us and can get easily swept away without the awareness that “this is our practice”, in every moment we can find Yoga. A tendency of forcing things was brought to my attraction when I first started my Asana practice, I like things my way and in return, I don’t allow things to “be” the way the are. In my experience I was missing out on the true beauty in the world, my heart was filled with judgement and I wasn’t able to be present for with my humanity. The more force that I pushed the further away from expansion I found myself and still find that tendency playing out today. To set intentions and take a moment to recognize our practice is our everyday life has been a helpful tool to support a slower approach to life, not seeking or avoid rather being in alignment with nature. A balance is necessary in all areas of life as we integrate Yoga into our everyday flow. Guilt, shame, control, fear, unworthiness and every other emotion should be recognize in our practice as an unfolded layer we have discovered. To acknowledge them gives us the power to integrate them with awareness. We have been running away from this pain for a long time, avoiding something true in our experience, chasing only pleasurable moments. These moments are precious, they are filled with many things that support our journey through life.

I refer to my environment these days as a playground for exploring, allowing what is needed to be seen and heard. This is a slow process of learning to play with one another while also recognizing that there will be space for oneself to get hurt while playing. It is important within this practice to recognize that there is a larger picture playing out, within this space I’m offering myself the opportunity to become more aware of my own conditioning and wounds. How often can we stop and see life beyond face value? In each moment we are becoming present to welcome in life force, without the use of “force”. It is within this surrendering that the cycles of the old and the new, balance the full spectrum of life.  The wholeness is that effortless state of balance in our human self and divinity. If we look at this cycle as either a beginning or an ending, we may get lost in not recognizing that there is not one without the other. When we become openly receiptive to life’s driving force, we are cultivating a space within our humanness that requires our presence for guidance though what may seem like chaos. This will open our space from the inside out to invite in a flow of people, events, situations on the outside that support our growth, which may not always feel comfortable but none the less important pieces for the wholeness. Beginnings and endings are challenging for us to see the whole, which is a invitation for a yogic practice to unfold into our lives.

Love, Love, Love

Resa