by Danielle
This week the images that keep coming up are that of finding stillness and peace in the midst of external movement. When I first started practicing yoga I used to have this image of a wagon wheel. When you look at the edge it appears to be spinning quite fast but if you look at the center it appears still. This concept of stillness at the center, like in the eye of a hurricane is what it feels like to me when I am in balance. It could be that that I am moving very fast down a mountain on skis, or it could be I am riding a bike or a horse, or when I am balancing or sitting on the earth or a slackfline, but when we are absorbed in focus and trusting in connection we find balance in and amongst movement. The training of focus, trains balance.
Here is an excerpt from a book I am ready called, Wabi Sabi for Writers.
Basho observed that everything is in motion, and efforts to deny or ignore this are delusions. Rather than attempt to avoid this reality by establishing fixed defense points, fortress, fortresses, monuments, and statues, rather than relying on solid foundations, Basho fixed himself to a different point of reference, a point caught up in the swirl of the storm. He synchronized his trajectory with the moving mass of patterns and codes, memes and ideas around him. With both emergence and acquiescence he was part of the dance. In this perpetual movement he attained stillness because he was moving relative to everything else.
This passage is a reminder to me that all life is impermanent and our denying that causes suffering to try and grasp on to the the external forces that are changing. Shifting our perspective to an internal point of reference guidance, security, and love allows us to move at what ever pace life seems to be swirling and still know peace and balance.
Your yoga practice is that tool to connect you to that internal point of reference. Come practice with us. learn with us, training with us, reach out to us and let us know how we can support your journey inward.