MAGICTOBER - DAY 3: Flowing through Challenges
THIS is MAGICTOBER***, my friends!!! In October I am challenging YOU: I am sharing my personal practice here to inspire you to join and discover the bliss of your own practice at home. Just take 5 minutes TODAY (!) to either repeat after me or MOVE LIKE YOU. Please, let me know in the comments below how this is working out for you.
*** what's up with MAGICTOBER?
DAY 3 - FLOWING THROUGH CHALLENGING TIMES
WHEN OBSTACLES ARE IN THE WAY ... KEEP MOVING. My friends, here is the rant of the day: I am in Berlin. It's grey, cold and constantly raining. The shower in my current appartement is an a**hole, the water is either burning hot or freezing cold, I hardly get to wash my hair, let alone taking a shower just for the soothing warmth. The internet, too, very moody, on and off, uploading, downloading, everything takes hours. Hours I would actually need to get sh** done. I need to apply for jobs, organize a German phone number and all I really want is to find my kind of yoga community in Berlin, visit friends and feel light and happy, like, right now. All of this is not happening, because why? I am not moving.
IMPATIENCE, FRUSTRATION, FEAR - WHEN LIFE SEEMS TO BE OUT OF CONTROL, I FREEZE. THANK GOODNESS: YOGA.
Maybe you can relate to this: Paralyzed be the feeling of having lost control, I start to do many things, a little research here, a preparation there, I keep myself busy without actually getting anything done. I feel like I am bumping into obstacles wherever I move, so not moving seems to be the safer way of being, right now. Of course, it doesn't change the situation, does it? My nervous system is reacting with alarm on physical and mental levels. Awesome, at least something is working. :-)
In fact, it is awesome. Fear can be paralyzing, but fear is also the motor to take action, eventually. A little bit like the Hindus describe Ganesha: He is celebrated as the Remover of Obstacles - but it is also him who puts them there for you to learn a lesson. Ganesha in that respect is the God of transformation, of new beginnings and of trust: The God with the head and the wisdom of an elephant promises Good Luck and material fortune. Still today it is common in India to have a Ganesha statue sit at the entrance of a business, decorated with fresh flowers, spoiled with prasad, little sugar treats, because Ganesha likes to eat. My lesson of today: FEAR WON'T MOVE IF I DON'T MOVE A LITTLE ACTION IS BETTER THAN NO ACTION
Of course, I didn't think about all of this before my practice. I just felt a deep deep urge to flow without holding poses too much, to lift my spirit up with music, to open my hips and crack my heart - and to simply make myself feel better. Which I did after the practice and it was then, when I realized: Not moving is really no solution. NOTHING HAPPENS
UNTIL SOMETHING MOVES
(Albert Einstein)
Just like the physical 5 minutes practice can move whole worlds for your body, little tiny steps into a direction can make a huge difference for an overwhelmed mind. Freezing away from obstacles and pretending they are not there, lets them actually grow bigger, they are haunting us even in the night, in our dreams or when we can't sleep. That way we are creating the fear ourselves by fleeing from whatever we think is in our way. Moving towards obstacles, facing them straight-forward, will take their power away. Even if the worst possible happens, in the moment when it actually happens, at least the fear of it happening has dissolved, right?
SURYA NAMASKAR: FLOW THROUGH THE SH*** TO REMOVE IT If you feel stuck in a rut, and binge watching netflix doesnt feel too rewarding anymore, maybe you wanna try this fast paced, high energy Surya Namaskar. Or you just get on the mat and see how your fear is moving you and where. The dance with fear might be a little messy, but that's fine, life is messy. Flowing doesn't necessarily mean that we are moving gracefully. First of all it means, we are moving. Even though it gets bumby at times: To keep moving, that's the grace. Oh, just for a little extra motivation: Compare my face in the first and the last picture. Moving seems to be working, right? Thanks for spending time with me, my friend. Let me know, how you are getting back into the flow, please. Big kiss.