My meditation to share with you: When you have created space through removing physical or emotional clutter, becoming more organized with your possessions, actions, or thoughts, resist the urge to fill that space. The space was created as a result of letting go of things you don’t need. You have become more organized because your processes have become more direct and efficient. It is ok to have places in your home and in your mind that are empty. Those are resting places for your spirit. Look at a newly empty room or a corner of a room or a closet or a space under the bed as a place for peace to live, not more stuff to be stuffed into. Be content that you now have everything you need and more is just… more. Bask in the nothingness.
I’m a generally anxious person who, in the past, has had varying levels of trouble with controlling my anxiety. At a time in my life it wasn’t abnormal for me to go into a complete meltdown over a sink full of dishes or a long to-do list. I’ve worked on this. A lot. I’ve invested many hours and days of my life learning better ways to deal with stress and anxiety, and I continue to refine my coping skills. I’ve been exploring the benefits of eating a clean diet for more than a decade, but I first hit the gym during one of the lowest points in my life. I was going through a really nasty divorce with my ex-husband and felt like I was suffering from depression. My general practitioner suggested that I take an anti-depressent and gave me a prescription after talking to her for about 10 minutes. The idea of taking a pill completely freaked me out, but I tried it anyway. Two weeks in and I knew that it wasn’t for me. I don’t know enough to say that psychiatric medicine is all bad and that diet and exercise can cure everything, but I do feel that a natural path should be explored before anything chemical. I started working out, paying more attention to my diet, practicing meditation techniques, chanting, praying, listening to speakers and motivators I admire, and just taking care of myself better in general. And now here I am, six years later, on the other side of pain, living my best possible life (but leaving lots of room for it to get better).
Part of my healing process included becoming more organized in my life. Keeping a clean, organized space also helps me to better deal with the clutter in my mind. Writing lists, giving things I don’t use everyday away, only holding on to a few sentimental items and leaving the rest of my experiences to memory… this is my process. My shoe collection can fit on one shelf, all my childhood memories are in one bin, storage is for things we use often but can’t be left out all the time – not for things we’ll never use again. Where I create space, I allow peace to live.
How does this relate to yoga teacher training?
We’re focusing on sauca (sow-cha) this week in teacher training, which is the first of the five niyamas and means cleanliness and purity. For our “sauca” week we were assigned to perform 3 kriyas (cleansing rituals) from a list of many each day. I chose neti (by using my neti pot to clean my nasal passages), nauli (an exercise to help clean the abdominal region – I practice this through uddiyana bandha), and nadi sodhana (alternate nostril breathing). Cleansing the body serves two purposes – it keeps us less germy and protects us from illness and it allows us to breathe and move better, allowing energy to flow more freely. The act of performing these rituals will serve that purpose for me and the assignment will motivate me to create space in my day to allow me to be alone and at peace with myself, doing something for my Self. My meditation practice is almost non-existent lately, so I use rituals like my personal yoga practice and blogging to create spaces for me to think (or not think). I’m excited to add another block of practices that have the possibility of opening new creative and spiritual gateways for me to pass through.
I made a video demonstration of my practice of nadi shodhana and uddiyana bandha. The neti pot situation is just too gross for me to feel good about sharing… water pouring out of my nose? Um, maybe in another life *wink*. If you are squeamish about gross looking belly stuff, DO NOT WATCH! I think it’s crazy fun, so here goes:
The next niyama is santosha, or contentment. I touched on how I’m going to approach this at the beginning of the blog. My goal in life is to be content with what I have in this moment, which for the most part I think that I am. And it’s not all about worry or dissatisfaction. I even have to pull myself back from being too excited about future happy things… but I’ll write more about that next week.
Whenever I’m feeling uneasy, I remind myself of the following words to realize that it isn’t about what’s happening now, because now is perfect… xo
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
– Loa Tzu