I teach yoga at the local YMCA and feel it is an important contribution in helping with stress. Many doctors recommend yoga in dealing with stress and I can personally say it has been very effective in helping me deal with life's demands. Someone mentioned to me recently that there has been discussion about yoga being non-christian. Yoga was designed without any religion in mind. Some religions have used yoga (including Monks), but it is not based on any one in particular. The YMCA practices Christian yoga and we are proud of our classes.
Having gone into all of that, this week in my yoga class we were working on grounding or being in the moment. Walt Whitman once said "I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete, the earth remains jagged and broken only to him or her who remains jagged and broken". Aren't we all from time to time jagged and broken? So many times we are running from place to place and literally running in circles. Complete? Not hardly. Grounded? Only after we fall down. We are so often consumed by our thoughts, worries, and stress. How do we let go?
Yoga is so often an opportunity to be still. Time to be quiet and one with our body, mind, and spirit. I so often tell my class that we are unable to hear God's voice because we are never still. Yoga is not only exercises. It is an opportunity to listen to the world around us. To be quiet. To honor ourselves if only for the moment.
Having a loved one with cancer is stressful and frightening. Many have asked me how I am dealing with the challenge. Truly I continue to live each day as best as I can. I look at the world around me and thank God for all of the blessings I have been given. I let go of my jagged and broken thoughts and work on being complete. Every day I try to find a time to be quiet. Those are the moments that I realize all of my blessings.
So often we become consumed with our stress, trouble, hardships, old stories, old hurts, and sink into the depths of our own "pity party". Those are the times that we must remember that there is someone out there that has it harder. Someone else who has a sadder story. Someone else who cannot pick themselves up. We must then remember to "pay it forward".
Amelia Earhart said "No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves." I believe the best way to let go of stress, trouble, unhappiness, and misery is to give of ourselves to others. Pay it forward. Remember that you are not alone in your troubles and share yourself with someone else. Smile at a stranger. Give a flower to a friend. Take a treat to your neighbor. Call your mother, brother, sister, friend, or spouse just to say you love them.
I have been so blessed by so many generous and loving friends. I am so fortunate and blessed to have the support and love they share with me. I am thankful and hope to "pay it forward". I challenge each of you to "pay it forward" this week and join me in letting go. Allow yourself to be still. Honor your body and mind. Say a prayer. Breathe.
At the end of each of my yoga classes I ask my class to inhale God's love and exhale any stress that we are holding and give it to God. Breathe, pray, and believe in the power of God's love. Pay it forward. May the light of Christ shine in your eyes today and every day.
Blessings -
Emmie
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