One of the walls in my sweet little city
garden is packed with Impatiens flowers.
Even though I planted tiny pup plants just five weeks ago, they are
exploding in vibrant colors and packed with new buds. As I admire this unrelenting bounty, I see these buds as little
packages of possibility. I tend this
garden and am surprised by the potent visual feast that defies logic since it
came from that wild, crazy, Big Orange garden center. Then I say it out loud, “MY IMPATIENTS IS FLOURISHING”. Ha! Even though the spelling is different (Impatience) the irony
is not lost on me since I’ll admit to being in a patience cultivating period, it’s
just taking more effort lately. After
all I am in many ways still the same kid that bent my bike training wheels up
when Dad took too long to get them off.
To be fair-he was on his way to do it-had all the tools in his hands and
everything but then got sidetracked by a visitor. I waited and waited then suddenly, it hit me-wheels up baby,
WHEELS UUUUP! There you
have it my personal gateway to years of taking matters into my own hands to
change things I didn’t want to accept.
The ability to be resourceful is an
absolute advantage for many things and I’ll bet that you too have your own MacGyver-y
gift for changing things that need it.
Thank goodness we eventually figure out where these skills are best utilized
to support us and those we love. Then
again-it’s remarkable how beings as superbly capable as we are can entirely
overlook another option for dealing with things we don’t like, things that are
not within our power to change, that make us ill at ease and uncomfortable. We are conditioned to suppress or run
from these things, to get to our happy place. We shield our hearts with armor and in doing so; we are
actually creating less and less capacity to tolerate the very thing we are
running from. The feeling tone of
this response shows up initially as agitation, restlessness, discursiveness, headache,
a stomach ache or my current favorite-impatience. If we can begin to notice and acknowledge these built in
survival alarms we can act right then and there to train in techniques that
support us rather than diminish us.
This really works-but you have to put in the
time on your mat regularly so you can access the benefits of the practice more
quickly when you need it most. Why
not keep it simple and start by using your intention setting time at the
beginning of practice to ask “How am I today?” “How does my body feel?” “What is my state of mind”? By asking and answering honestly, with the care and
attention you’d give your best friend, you answer with 1 word, no more than 3. The area of the body that needs it most
gets to answer. Whatever the
answer, you repeat the word to yourself as a form of acknowledgment-something
like “Ok knee hurts today. Got it”
or “Ok, mind feels agitated but you don’t know why” or perhaps “Delighted by
the Impatiens you took a chance on!”
Next, send feelings of love and compassion to the chosen area or thought
with the intention of simply allowing
space for the thing that is going on to happen, it’s real so be with it for a
few moments. This is done with the
same attitude you might have when putting a supportive hand on the shoulder of
a friend who needs it. That’s it, that’s the practice-just
start there.
Its training ground to practice really listening to yourself which helps
hone awareness skills for identifying first sign triggers of stress in privacy
and safety on your mat. In time we
learn to honor our body messages and respond with mindful techniques rather
than suppress these caution symbols; which by the way-only exacerbates stress and
dis-ease! As with asana, don’t try
to quantify an outcome in a timeframe, just be consistent whether you can get
to the mat or not. Try to take 30
seconds each day (same time each day) to ask the question/s followed by acknowledgement
and your offering of love and compassion.
The beauty of this practice is that
it reminds us to trust what we already know- that we can choose not to be
overwhelmed by discomfort because what is happening now will not be what’s
happening 60 seconds, 60 days or 60 years from now. Everything is always changing-the stuff we think is good,
the stuff we think is bad. None of
it lasts forever and life is just harder when we resist the elemental truth of
impermanence. Moving through this
life humbly risking, falling and getting up to risk again is what creates the
texture for each of our stories. It’s
actually freeing to relax into the teachings of impermanence; we can then use
our energy to create the life that is waiting for us in the time we have to do
it.
Oh! So you want to know if I got in trouble for turning my
training wheels into the shape of a Flying Nun hat? Nah. Dad tried to
hide his laughter. I think he knew
he had his own little package of possibility.
Tam Terry
Sunday's: Sunday Sanctuary - 12:15 - 1:30pm
Yoga for Stress Management - more dates coming soon
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