The Journey Within

One of the things I love most about being with toddlers is how they choose to show up for each moment with such fresh presence. If something happens that touches them with pleasure, they insist for you to repeat, repeat, and repeat....if you are willing...until the end of time. 

What a beautiful gift we have as kids.  How come when we grow we take on this "one and done" mentality? We experience things once and no matter the effect on us, we are done. Be it a new experience, a new tune, or even a new face. I used to live my future through a mind guided by the past. A past written years and years ago despite the fact the only constant is change. How does that even make sense? And why am I wasting my precious time? Because the truth is each and every second is not one relived but rather it is new and fresh if only we have the courage to open ourselves up to fully experience and see it through with curiosity and love. 

My nephew is really into Humpty Dumpty right now. I don't blame him, Mr. Dumpty was a cool egg. He will reenact the scene over and over with different toys, each new episode better than the last. Not because he knows whats going to happen, but because he doesn't.  He allows himself to be the participant and observer of his unique experience of life not assuming everything was learned from the first naive attempt. He then takes what he has learned not to move past the enjoyment and disregard, but rather to better show up for what special thing might show up with the new eyes he has today. 

What if we all made sure to never let things get old. The morning coffee stop, the daily chores, brushing our teeth, the new song on the radio, the ones who rest beside us at night...? 

There is one thing that I have found to retain that virginity of magnificence, and when I observe why, the answer is clear...everytime I partake in it I do it with such an authentic vibe of exploration that I actually let the things happen to me, pass through me. Not the me of yesterday, not the me I see 10 years down the road, but me today, imperfect - but accepted and loved. 

This thing is yoga. A place where I have had the blessing to show up broken and overjoyed the same, never letting that past brokenness not allow me to experience the joy of today. When I arrive in this space, time literally stops and the worries of my mind melt gently release their grasp. I show up to my mat bravely. Not as the person who has everything fixed, but as a place to grow into that person I crave to be in the world.  The simplicity of such an act has taken me through the darkest of times when this choice of love became the catalyst for more acts of love and grace in my world. 

The asanas never change - but I do, and the ability to embrace this change and realize that because of it the postures are in fact never the same - somehow allows me to flow more easily with the certain changes of life. Just like with Humpty Dumpty and his infamous fall, I know at the very end I will fall within and arrive in my final pose. An experience I repeat everyday, remaining as fresh and poignant as the very first time experienced. In fact today, it is far better than the first time.  

This is what I want to bring back to life outside the studio; the courage to become aware of the change in me that translates to an infinite freshness for the way in which I experience the world. 

One day I hope to have the honor to guide you to that final pose, holding the space for you to experience yourself in this moment as never before felt. Each pose the same, yet your experience wildly anew.