Yoga is teaching me that it is possible to find ease in the midst of disease. Disease as far as I believe is any moment where we feel our ease in life slip away from us. When this occurs many of us admit defeat. We grumble and complain. We sing songs of “why me?” Yoga challenges us to soften in moments of disease. Soften, I have learned means to stop resisting, stop fighting, and stop grumbling about what is. It challenges us to look for the joy in the moment. It challenges us to adjust our position in order to make ourselves a bit more comfortable in the midst of the uncomfortable. It challenges us to “fix our face” and remove the stern look of strain allowing the pose to be what it is. It requires us to be in the sensations of the practice rather than wishing it away. If we falter, we always get to begin again with the next posture and get to choose how we show up once more.
If you aren’t getting the drift yet, this applies to everyday life. We all face challenges and uncomfortable emotions and sensations in life, but we get to choose our inner environment. We are allowed the freedom to choose our perception. We are free to choose our attitude. We get to choose how much effort we will put forth. We get to choose acceptance or resistance. We choose whether we will smile or not. We choose to grumble or seek the joy in each moment.
Imagine what the world could be like if everyone chose heaven as their inner world. Imagine a world where people chose to be their highest self. Imagine a world where people embraced their strengths while showing compassion for their limitations. What would it be like if people stayed kind in the chaos? What would it be like if people stretched beyond their comfort zones and embraced new positions of thought… of ways of being? What would it be like if more people embraced the lessons that life has to teach and allowed yoga to happen? Imagine that practicing ease could cure all of the disease in this world?
My first yoga instructor always said, “Feel the alchemy.” As a newbie I didn’t quite get it. I kept waiting to feel some magical spiritual experience and I now see that the alchemy is the magic that sneaks up on you throughout your practice. It is the transformation of the way you learn to embrace yourself and your life through the practice. It is the magic that comes to you and through you when your mind is calm and you allow yourself to be exactly as you are without thought, without resistance, without strain. That is the alchemy of yoga!
How are you choosing to show up in times of disease? Have you considered that you have this freedom that nobody can take from you? What, if anything, would you choose to change about the way you are currently facing the less desirable circumstances of your life? Share in the comments or send me a message. I’d love to hear from you.