Letting Life Flow
Yoga offers us the opportunity to gradually learn to feel comfortable with ‘what is.’ Each steady pose, ‘asana’ gives us the gift of becoming one with each breaking moment, each emotion, each sensation and each feeling so as we engage in the yogi path of non-resistance, we are able to be more at ease with letting life flow and taking it all as it comes.
Since being very young I used to instinctively turn to Nature for advice and hints on how to live. Mother Nature has never failed me offering many teachings so readily and freely available. Engaging at the age of 13 in the practice of Yoga furnish me with more tools to ensure my heart would always remain open to embrace all the gifts of life. and trust that the natural essence of my unfolding life would always point me in the right direction. Taking the time to sit in meditation or taking a walk in the woods would gradually bring about the elements of my heart which wanted to manifest and come forth as step-stones to show me the way and bring clarity during times of inner turmoil or confusion. Being still with myself would shine light of my path ahead and always offer me the inner acceptance to embrace all which came to me with trust and faith instead of fear and doubt.
Yoga teaches us to let go, to surrender to the flow of life, to allow life to happen to us. Our job is to enter into a dynamic dance with those sacred messages and rhythms from the universe so we can materialize them into action and bring about the necessary fruition.
I used to sit by the lake and I recall focusing my mind and full attention for instance on single stick floating on the water and concentrating on its flowing path through rocks and all sorts of obstacles. Somehow, the stick would not resist what came on its way but would just flow along as if being a partner in a perfect dance with the water. Then, I would think of practical ways to take ‘this example’ and learn to take all the obstacles life sets on one’s way with the same acceptance and easiness of that stick, which simply went along with the flow without offering any resistance.
I feel that a lot of perfecting the art of letting life flow is not so much in us ‘doing’ but in us ‘allowing’ things to happen. We have grown up used to thinking that we always have to be in full control and that we always have to be in charge of it all. We get involved in so many activities and endless action that sometimes we do not allow life to flow. In this way, we miss the miracles and wonders being delivered to us right in front of our eyes. Yoga grants us that essential space in our busy lives to stop, to remain still and to listen within. The simplest yet essential meaningful things that happen in each perfect encounter, in each smile, in each flower that gives us its wonderful scent, are absolutely free! As a matter of fact, most of the greatest things about life are free! One just needs to be there, right at the evolving present when those things are happening to see them and embrace them in full appreciation as true gifts of life. Unfortunately, very often we are so engaged in our worries, thoughts and daily activities that we forget to pay attention to the essential subtle things that make life such a wonderful gift!
When you can arrive at the present moment and give yourself entirely to your life as it flows, in spite of your fears, in spite of your goals, in spite of the weather, in spite of it all; then and only then, life shines with its most magical and divine splendor. Under this light you can recognize every single thing happening to you at any given moment as perfect. This happens beyond whether you can perceive it or not. Life has wonderful ways of wrapping its presents, but we are so busy looking for the fancy shining light at the end of the tunnel that we miss seeing it right in front of us in the ever-evolving now.
Yoga offers us the opportunity to sit in silence to look, to pay attention and to stop. You’ll too see it and feel it that the very moment you let go of controlling things; right at that moment, your life will have changed in the most miraculous way, because you will stop ”fighting” and “resisting” what is and you will finally get to experience inner peace.
Whether is is performing your favorite asana, meditating under a colorful tree, relaxing in Shavasana or practicing Karma yoga, at every turn of the practice yoga offers the open invitation to welcome life freely as it comes with an open heart, a balanced mind and equal vision; knowing it is all sweet fruit to fertilize the soul. We come to the realization then that life must be embraced as it comes, without passing judgment, without getting on the way of it flows; but instead by jumping into its flowing stream so that we may be always guided to a place of calmness and oneness with the now.
Enjoy watching the river, the natural flow of life take you to your destination!
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