NOW HERE vs. NOWHERE

Life gives us a constant opportunity to practice yoga.

I was sitting on a chairlift in Windham, New York last week, wishing that this beautiful day wouldn't end. I started to get up in my head regretting my plan to stay for only one day. I was having a conversation with myself, "Why are you so stupid? You should have planned to stay longer! Its spring break! You could have stayed all week! I don't want to leave tonight!"

When I realized that I was not accepting the moment or the situation but pushing it away, I took a deep breath and was able to stop myself and surrender to what was right in front of me....this gorgeous days on the slopes with my children. My attachment to not wanting the day to end was creating suffering and actually pulling me out of the day and into a place of NOWHERE. In Conversation with God, God says, "If we are not NOW HERE , we are NOWHERE." ON paper, putting some space in between the W and H changes everything. My deep breath and my awareness of my thoughts created the space in my mind to be able to go from NOWHERE to NOW HERE. 

Impermanence is the nature of the human condition. Everything changes. This is a truth that we all know in our minds but its hard to accept in our hearts.

ATHA YOGA ANUSHASANUM is the opening Sutra in the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali. This simple statement says "NOW begins the exposition on yoga". That first word, ATHA or NOW is the basis of the entire philosophy of yoga.  Patanjali wants us to focus on NOW and pay attention to what's happening in our bodies, minds, breath, and our hearts using the tools of the eight limbed practice of yoga.

As Judith Hanson Lassiter says, "The ability to respond to NOW without clinging to it or pushing it away is the essence of the spiritual practice of yoga." 

Yoga teaches us that the only unchanging part of human existence is the PARUSHA, the eternal divine self, that place of love and bliss. The recognition and faith in this will bring us peace.

Namaste,
Cara