Weekly Letter: Filling our toolbox

I was reading something lately and I can’t remember who it was, but they were talking about the tools we have to help us in life, especially things that help our mind to relax and focus. The comment was promoting taking a walk, drinking a glass of water, things like that which nourish the body and mind.

What I’ve noticed about myself is in the moment when I need my tools the most, I draw a blank and then go with the first thing that feels good. I head toward the thing I think will help satisfy the mind, like folding the laundry. But once that’s done, I still feel shifty so I go toward the next task that I think will satisfy me, but it turns into a vicious cycle that only ends when I run out of time. And even though those tasks are useful on their own, they don’t help me in the way I was seeking, but rather fuel the anxiousness in the mind even more.

The yoga practice is a class that teaches about tools to work on that shiftiness inside. For the modern practioner, life is full of technology promising to make life easier and less stressful, but the inertia of this efficiency propels us toward speed and accumulation and the mind revs up to meet the rhythm. But what the mind needs is something more simple. The mind needs time to slow down so it can focus on fewer pieces of ourselves and thus function on a higher plane than speed; self-actualization.

Bringing ourselves into a place where we can be self-actualized for a time, allows us the space and CONFIDENCE to sluff-off things that we might waste our time with had we not taken the care to check in with ourselves first.

In short: when you say, ‘I don’t have time to practice,’ is a sign you need to practice.

~Carmen