Still

My class was in Savasana.  I was sitting peacefully in meditation between the indoor space and outdoor deck, both of which held students who were finishing my evening Vinyasa Flow class.

The outdoor deck practice space is extra special.  Only open during late spring to early fall, it is nestled in the yoga studio’s garden, right outside the floor to ceiling windows where an open French door embraces those outside into the rest of the group inside.  You hear the neighborhood – people chattering, dishes clanking, lawn mowers running, slight hum of cars driving nearby.  Nothing too distracting – just sounds from a normal day.  What is a gift of sound is the chatter of squirrels, chirps of birds calling out, and the wind in the trees that frame the space.

Often, when I cue students to start coming back into their body, out of Savasana, I ask them to listen to the sounds of the space around them outside of my voice.  I don’t know how it happens (a student once said I call it in with my intent), but the wind seems to pick up and create more rustling in the trees right at that moment to tap into the students’ awareness.

Last night the wind started its song a bit earlier.  As I held the space, I watched the branches bend and the leaves rustle. Bend, right itself back up, flutter and find stillness.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Right before class a student who is striving to be the best at yoga (and she does not realize she is the best just the way she is right now), exclaimed that she is struggling with balance poses.  I worked with her for about two minutes, asking her to practice Pada Bandha, creating stability from the ground up.  She found it, stayed still with a smile on her face, then when wobbled, frowned. 

Trying to be perfect.  Not understanding that our bodies are meant to be in motion and easily falling out of stillness is GREAT.  It is how you recover when you dip and sway that helps you in everyday life.  Physically and metaphorically.  If you are walking and trip, the quick recovery movement is the important piece of the puzzle to keep you from falling and bringing you back upright.  Same when our mind or ego takes a hit and stumbles.  How you ebb and flow provides the essential key to peacefulness.

Watch the trees.  See how they bend and dip in the wind to recover and find themselves upright again.  They are never still.