Transitions

Seasons Change
It's getting cold outside in the mornings as the seasons change.  This photo is from my last yoga session on the dock this year.   Looking back as I walked away from a finished practice, I saw the sun reflecting on the lake, and I knew I'd say goodbye for now.  Hopefully I'm around the area to enjoy the same privilege next spring.   If not, I may just have to make the drive. 

Remember my dear yoga sisters?  Heather recently brought to my attention that we are all experiencing some major transitions in out lives currently.  She just sent her first son off to college.  Steffanie just sent her first son off to serve an LDS mission.  My oldest son is now in kindergarten.  Yes, the seasons will change.  Heather also pointed out that how gracefully we take the transitions we make within our individual circumstances will determine our ability to trust the process of life.  

Sometimes, I can't help but feel the way my favorite female songwriter, Dar Williams describes in her song, "It's Alright"... 

"I know change is a bad thing, makes me down into a sorry sad thing, not some iridescent grateful butterfly.  I'd resist with defiance, not the valor of a mystic silence, I will fight the dizzy spiral of goodbye."  But--It is alright.  

K.T. Tunstall, another favorite songwriter of mine, describes it as "The Beauty of Uncertainty."  Whenever I hear someone else so beautifully express it, I'm glad to know we all have these transitions, and we all have to learn to move with it.  

Trust Yourself

When I was a ballerina years ago, I remember my instructor telling us how important the transitions in-between the steps we took were.  Within the transitions was the artistry.  If you took the transitions with grace, you would become stronger.  Making something look light, and easy actually takes a great deal of strength.  Now, I still apply this principle as I move from one yoga pose to another.   It becomes like a dance.  This is why I love vinyasa flow.  Although, I have yet to have the same kind of grace in my day to day.

I think of those dancers I knew who seemed to posses this amazing grace.  Jessica Hansen in Swan Lake, Christina Gee and her radiant smile, & occasionally--me.  I would at times, almost grasp what seemed impossible--true flow.  The things we do by instinct, are what we do best.  It has been described in numerous ways.  Embedded knowledge, muscle memory, subconscious, going with the flow, getting into the zone, whatever you choose to call it, everyone has experienced that space where time is suspended, and it all comes natural.  

Also, I often would ponder over the simple words on the wall at my favorite yoga studio, carefully placed inside a boundless circle:

"Practice and all is Coming."~ Shri K Pattabhi Jois

Often, our yoga instructors would remind us to remove the ambition from our practice.  I think I finally understand what they meant.  Trust that you know what you already have learned.  Remove the conscious effort and the comparison to others.  This relieves a great deal of anxiety, because there is less need for micro-management in your own life, or over anyone else.  Simply learn what is necessary, and then allow it to flow naturally from you.  Trust Yourself.