As I rushed to the studio this morning to teach yoga, I could feel the ironic tightening of my shoulders and a shortness in my breath. I felt a contraction every time I was met with a red light or a driver merging into my lane ‘too slowly’. I was aware of the mounting tension in my body and the intensity of this sensation coming into sharp focus as the inevitable storyline ensued. The story about how people need to drive in a particular way to perfectly suit my needs or how I can’t seem to get my life together in a way so that I’m not rushing to teach yoga.
And as I sat down in front of my students and took a deep breath, the words seemed to pour out of me as they often do, without really knowing from where they came. As we joined together, closed our eyes and took that inward turn toward the Self, I was commanded by the pause of that moment. I spoke, not as an authority on the subject, but rather as a compassionate student of life, in solidarity with everyone that day… and not just with the students who showed up for class, but everyone who feels the contraction of their lives.
As we lovingly turned our focus to the naked rise and fall of the breath, I asked that we all notice the pause between the inhale and exhale. And as we stayed with and revisited this pause again and again, I felt a blanket of relief wash over all of us. It was as if we all sank back into ourselves and were abiding AS BEING; no longer concerned with the doing.
We are forever being thrust forward by the momentum of our lives and because of this we forget how the pause between the breaths is just as, if not more, important than the inhale and exhale of our lives. We have been habituated to focus so much on the DOING that we eclipse the BEING; the simple unapologetic being that is our birthright.
So, when we find ourselves in the irony of our lives, rushing to a yoga class, we can choose to bring our practice into the moment by moment experience of our day. We can shine our awareness on the pause between breaths and rest in the serenity of our Being. We lovingly wipe the mirror clean and see ourselves as the Light Bearers we truly are in spite of or perhaps because of our human frailties, and we turn to the person beside us reflecting the same Truth back to them.
-Chrissy Leake
