It’s summer. These days I find I do everything a bit more slowly. Time thickens and there is more of it, even though I still don’t have enough of it! When we met for our last YCC class at OSU last week, we practiced a series of calming, cooling, grounding and restorative practices. I find that in the tremendous heat {and it is tremendous–on the body, mind and breath} it’s best to slow down, ground and be gentle with yourself and others. The term ‘hot-headed’ comes to mind. People can get so easily frustrated and agitated in the heat because their body–the natural state of their being–is frustrated and agitated.
In cooling down and taking things slowly, I aimed to bring us to an even deeper place physically so we could then deepen our last question and heart contemplation. We practiced asana first and then meditated and wrote for a good half-hour. Getting physical at the beginning of class helps open wide the channels to the mind, I find.
In honor of the summer months {the time when everyone takes vacation, plays outside more, rests more, perhaps, from the heat} I wanted us to contemplate the question: ‘What do I want to do next?’ Moving from our series of working together for 4-weeks, I thought–why not question and consider how this series has had an impact on your practice and what you might want to do next with it?
So often we are on automatic pilot doing the next and the next and the next thing because we know it to be true of our routine and it’s what we HAVE to do to get stuff done. And there is power and validity in that. In asking the question, I wanted to give folks the chance to make some space to stop the push and start the pull. What do I want? You know what everyone else wants of you, right?
And in asking, it may be as simple as–I want an ice tea after class. That was what I wanted, and I went home and made some. In letting the cues that emerge be small in scale and expectation, I find I’m more likely to actually honor what I need and also get stuff done.
So let what emerges be small. It can be what you want to do for the day. For me, it was a list of four things I knew I wanted to get done over the next two days before the weekend. So I made a list and let myself take the two days to get them done, and was happy when the weekend hit and I’d crossed them off my list.
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What do I want to do next? I’m taking the month of August to work on my website, prepare for a new series of Yoga for the Creative Class at Wild Goose Creative, start a new dance, and rest with family and friends. August is the month in Europe when people take off and unplug. While I can’t do that in the states, I aim to create my own summer retreat at home. Jennifer Louden in her book The Life Organizer offers the intention, “I won’t bully myself to do better; I will love myself into discerning what my next step is.” Here’s to loving summer, and loving yourself.
