The Purpose of Being Present

While meditating this morning, I asked to see my future self, and I saw Future Me teaching a yoga class. I gave a little pre-class spiel as my students were settling into their mats, and I liked it so much that Present Me wrote it down to share with you. 🙂

As you begin to get comfortable on your mat, gently come into child’s pose. Let your hips sink back onto your heels and stretch your arms out in front of you, forehead resting on the earth.

Start to draw your attention inward, to your breath. Breathing in…and breathing out.

Set the intention, right here, right now, to let the next 60 minutes be a time of peace. A time and space free of judgement.

So often, we come to our mat and we push ourselves to do what we did the day before or what our neighbor is doing next to us.

Right now, let it all go. It’s just you and your mat, right here, right now.

I recently read a book by a Nobel-prize-winning physicist, and before launching into an explanation of some super complex math he said, relax, “the work will teach us how to do it.”

We’re not doing any complicated math here, today. It’s just yoga, and it, too, will teach us how to do it. Just relax…and breathe.

In order to learn from the work, we must be present. Right here, right now. Not thinking about what our last class was like or who’s doing what over there. Let the work teach you by bringing your focus back to you, back to your experience.

Let your breath teach you. Does it want you to slow down, speed up, pause?

Let your body, moving through the poses, teach you. Does it want you to stretch a little more? A little less? To hold that pose a little longer?

As you let each moment be your teacher, you allow your experience to change you, in contrast to spending so much energy trying to change your experience. Trying to make it more this or less that. You simply allow it to be, and in that space, it will teach you. 

So let’s begin. Let’s gently rise up, sitting on your heels, and on the inhale, bring your arms up and over your head, palms touching. Sink into this moment, and allow the work to show you how to do it, one moment, one breath, one pose at a time.

Can you allow yourself to be just a little more present today, returning to each moment if you start to wander, gently coming back to what is, not what you want it to be instead?

Allow yourself to call back the energy that was once spent trying to change life to suit your demands…and allow life to change you instead.

Namaste.