Riding the waves of change
“The only thing constant in the world is change.
That’s why today I take life as it comes.” India Arie
This song by India Arie for me, sums up the aspect of change, we cannot escape it no matter how hard we try and the only way to deal with it is day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath. From a young age, as if almost instilled in us is the struggle with things changing. What a paradox it seems for everything at every moment is in a constant state of evolution. As a mother, I witness first hand my 3 year old struggle with change and for him he shows it on an external level with temper tantrums, sleep patterns changing and just plain frustration. After Hurricane Katrina, my whole family was relocated here to Florida from Biloxi, that was a lot of change for all of us. Each day we had to learn to “take life as it comes” for we were unsure of what the future would hold, all we knew was that things were changing and changing rapidly. Now after some time has past I can look back and see how we all evolved and grew during that time.
In Yoga there is a Sanskrit term Parinamavada, the idea that constant change is an inherent part of life. If we can learn to embrace this concept maybe our need to struggle would diminish. We would finally understand what it is meant to be in the present moment on and off our yoga mats. It is the day to day checking in and accessing where we are and not assuming that we are the same as we were the day before. On the mat is the discerning of what kind of practice best serves us. Finding that connection between the body, mind and spirit, not doing what we think we should do, being who we think we should be, just simply the connecting to the truth of the moment and moving from that space. Even throughout a practice we can feel an evolution taking place, our bodies begin to open, that postures take us deeper, the breathe levels and the mind subsides. For me that is the important aspect of beginning and ending the time on the mat with moments of meditation and honoring the changes that you want to create and that have occurred and honoring yourself for showing up. Each day if we take a moment and check in we can see who we are in that moment and also honor ourselves for showing up. So much of yoga is the work outside the mat, but the work on it helps us to become more aware. Living Yoga and doing Yoga are two separate things, but we must start somewhere.
So as the seasons change, day turns to night, infants turn into toddlers, the young become the old, can we learn to ride the ebb and flow of life? The answer I believe is YES… through surrender, through acceptance. In Buddhism it is believed that we all struggle until we realize that we don’t have to and then struggling subsides. There are times when life brings us change with a small wave lapping up the shore and other times that life brings us a hurricane of change. Hold on tight, breathe in breathe out and now that “This to shall pass.” Namaste’
“The only thing constant in the world is change.
That’s why today I take life as it comes.” India Arie
This song by India Arie for me, sums up the aspect of change, we cannot escape it no matter how hard we try and the only way to deal with it is day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath. From a young age, as if almost instilled in us is the struggle with things changing. What a paradox it seems for everything at every moment is in a constant state of evolution. As a mother, I witness first hand my 3 year old struggle with change and for him he shows it on an external level with temper tantrums, sleep patterns changing and just plain frustration. After Hurricane Katrina, my whole family was relocated here to Florida from Biloxi, that was a lot of change for all of us. Each day we had to learn to “take life as it comes” for we were unsure of what the future would hold, all we knew was that things were changing and changing rapidly. Now after some time has past I can look back and see how we all evolved and grew during that time.
In Yoga there is a Sanskrit term Parinamavada, the idea that constant change is an inherent part of life. If we can learn to embrace this concept maybe our need to struggle would diminish. We would finally understand what it is meant to be in the present moment on and off our yoga mats. It is the day to day checking in and accessing where we are and not assuming that we are the same as we were the day before. On the mat is the discerning of what kind of practice best serves us. Finding that connection between the body, mind and spirit, not doing what we think we should do, being who we think we should be, just simply the connecting to the truth of the moment and moving from that space. Even throughout a practice we can feel an evolution taking place, our bodies begin to open, that postures take us deeper, the breathe levels and the mind subsides. For me that is the important aspect of beginning and ending the time on the mat with moments of meditation and honoring the changes that you want to create and that have occurred and honoring yourself for showing up. Each day if we take a moment and check in we can see who we are in that moment and also honor ourselves for showing up. So much of yoga is the work outside the mat, but the work on it helps us to become more aware. Living Yoga and doing Yoga are two separate things, but we must start somewhere.
So as the seasons change, day turns to night, infants turn into toddlers, the young become the old, can we learn to ride the ebb and flow of life? The answer I believe is YES… through surrender, through acceptance. In Buddhism it is believed that we all struggle until we realize that we don’t have to and then struggling subsides. There are times when life brings us change with a small wave lapping up the shore and other times that life brings us a hurricane of change. Hold on tight, breathe in breathe out and now that “This to shall pass.” Namaste’
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