Happy First Day of Summer!!!! This morning when I woke up, I put my yoga pants and tank on underneath my work clothes. My plan: take the 5:57am bus and get to Times Square by 7am for class on the street with Douglas Stewart (ISHTA Yoga) and a couple hundred other yogis! What a great experience! After every vinyasa as we brought our hands to hearts center he asked, "Where are you? What is this?" And at first I giggled, because I was thinking, "Dude, we're in Times Square! Hellooo!? There's no getting around that!" I was distracted by the fact that there are way too many digital billboards that everytime I focused on one for balance, it would change to a new picture. I was distracted by the numerous (I think I counted 7) professional photographers snapping hundreds of pictures. I was distracted by the largest audience I've ever seen at a yoga class - tons of faces surrounding the perimeter - tourists looking on, people headed to work. I was distracted by the fact that I was literally on my mat in the gutter of Broadway between a pot hole and a puddle. I was definitely getting challenge on focusing! After maybe the 4th time he asked us, "Where are you? What is this?" I was able to go deeper and listen to what he was really asking.
Where are you?
Am I lost in the noise and the rush of the world around me? Am I able to shut out the things that don't matter - the things that really serve no purpose to my well being right now? Am I able to focus on the here and the now of where I actually am and what I am doing in this moment?
What is this?
THIS is what I want to be doing ALL the time. This flow of the practice is how I want to be handle the flow of life - easing up when it gets to be too much, pushing further when I know I can. This life giving practice is what I want to bring to other people, to children. THIS is what life is all about.
After I got to that point I was able to move slower, open up, and look past the buildings towards the endless blue skies. I was grateful for the distractions. It was such a great eye opener that I didn't shut my eyes in savasana this time. I simply looked up past it all and knew that everything would be okay, even amongst all that distracts.
To view the event page and more great pictures, click here: Times Square Alliance And thanks to Friendship Cottage Cheese for the swag bag!
