Show Up

You've arrived. You're sitting on your yoga mat a few minutes before the class is scheduled to begin. As you sit, you look around at the other people arriving and settling onto their mats. Perhaps you're feeling a bit anxious about what lays ahead. You look at the person a couple of mats over and think, "Wow, they look like they know what they're doing...I wonder if I'll ever look like that." Perhaps you're wondering if this is where you actually want to be, as there are so many other options available to you at this time. I mean, you did have to say "no" to something else in order to just get here in time. Is it worth it?

As I sat in contemplation on Sunday afternoon, thinking about what I would talk about in the upcoming week, I wasn't struck with any seemingly brilliant sparks of inspiration. So, I reflected back into the types of conversations I had been having with people and it seemed that one common theme was that of simply showing up. It can be truly challenging to make a commitment to something on a regular basis and stick with it. In order to understand our drive to being there in the first place, understanding why is a first step. 

What is it that brings you to the mat or meditation cushion? 
For so many, the initial impetus is finding a way to stretch and strengthen our body. Another is to search for a way to manage the everyday stresses in our lives. These are great reasons to come into a practice of yoga or meditation. Another reason is to truly get a deeper understanding of ourselves.

When we show up on the mat it has a double effect. The first is the experience that we have during the practice. We can breathe, stretch deeply, slow down, and perhaps gain some insights we hadn't connected to previously. And the second is the effect that occurs when we step off the mat and back out into the world. What we do on the mat supports us in showing up in our lives. Students in my classes might have heard me say that when we go to a class it's as though we're stepping into our own laboratory. It's where we experiment, where we try things out or perhaps taking a bigger risk into something unknown. It's easy to find deeper relaxation, a quieter mind, and deep breathing in a beautifully controlled environment which is climate controlled, filled with props to support and pad us, as well as a lovely and often high tech yoga mat to step onto. The teacher guides us through progressions and visualizations to help accelerate a particular experience, often with a focused intention. 

The "real" yoga begins when the class is over and we head outside of the lab. We come face-to-face with the world, which, after a good yoga class or session of meditation, appears as though everyone we come across is about as far away from enlightenment that a person could get! It's enough to knock us out of our post-savasana haze into the cruel "realities" of daily life. One of the most unexpected gifts I've received from practicing yoga and meditation is a sense of softness with the world. When I see anger, frustration, rage, or deep sadness in others, I can more easily see through the suffering that has caused it. I continue to practice offering kindness to myself on my mat so that I can step out into the big bad world and try it out on others. 

It's a practice. It's challenging. It often makes us feel vulnerable to expose ourselves a bit more fully than we have previously. As Brené Brown, (Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead) says:

"The willingness to show up changes us. It makes us a little braver each time." 

So my thought of the week is to applaud all of you who take the time to read this, to those of you who set the intention of showing up in your practice, and to those who come back, again and again, trusting that what we create in the lab stays with us as we venture out.

Thank you for showing up!