sustainable life, balance and yoga

Most healers would agree that our biography is our biology.  All of our life experiences are contained within the complex organism we call “our body.”  Our body is our vehicle that carries us though the day.  On a good day if the body feels good we feel good.  If our body feels bad we don’t feel very good emotionally or otherwise.

When we consider ways that we care for ourselves the list is huge. I’m not just speaking of the obvious eating, sleeping, etc. I mean how do we consider  sustaining a balanced life each and every day?  What ways do we enhance our health? Do we even want superior health?

More and more it occurs to me that in order to keep it all together and ask for more, we have to create health practices that are sustainable over our lifetimes. Take for example how many of us do a little stop-start when it comes to health practices. The usual pattern is to get interested, get excited, try something new, stay with it for awhile and then drop it. Why do we drop it? Maybe because it was too intense.  It wasn’t balancing for us. It was too charged up or not charged up enough. If it ultimately doesn’t energize and balance, it will eventually exhaust.

Consider your yogasana practice. Here are some ways to develop a steady-easeful-lifetime practice:

*Beginners beware and build slowly. There is no hurry to learn and develop a well rounded practice.  Be patient and kind to yourself while learning. Stay open to the experience and let go of results.

*Those who’ve been practicing for awhile-stay mindful, careful and pretend you are still a beginner! Just because you have an established practice doesn’t mean you need to develop a “now I need more” attitude. How about just staying consistent for a few years and developing more steadiness, more connection to pranayama, and mindfulness. More inner awareness.

*Watch your patterns. Am I getting bored? Why? Do I always need to be excited? What a great opportunity to practice getting grounded in contentment with “what is,” as opposed to “other.”

*Practice to transcend. Go against the grain of the usual suspects. Take your mind on a different journey and be really open to non-judging yourself as you experiment with new ways of being human on and off the mat.

*Take the pressure off. Just go to the mat with a fresh start approach. Not sure what will happen but whatever does happen is okay. Moment by moment.

OM OM OM

yoga jane