RESILIENCY

What was 2020, if not a test of resiliency. After I started writing this post, Ontario announced another lockdown. Here we are again – another test! This pandemic has thrust us into some of the biggest changes and challenges of our lives and despite our many differences, we are contending with many of the same fears and hurdles. What has helped you through this time?

Through my greatly narrowed window to the outside world, I have marvelled at the fortitude and ingenious ways we have continued to find joy and support. Resiliency is a term that can be defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties”. We practice yoga to increase the resiliency and adaptability of our body and mind. This work helps us determine what is useful and to discard what is not helpful.

Uncertain times test our perseverance and resiliency. We see individuals donate to the food banks, and those who never needed food assistance before, now use the food bank. We have theatre online, work and school online, grocery online, doctors online, and community groups online and socially distanced. More people took to camping and spending time in nature. We made nests of our homes and we continue to find brilliant and creative ways to adapt. Many like me found support in nature, in family, and online. I Skyped, Facetimed and Zoomed to keep connected. I enjoy solitude but I needed to see my family, my friends, clients and students. Humans need contact. Pandemic or not, life will always be a rollercoaster of joys and sorrows and the practice of resiliency is vital to ride the highs and lows.

During times of hardship, we often will put our head down and barrel through the tough times until we feel our circumstances change. We ignore how we are truly feeling. Listening and respecting how we feel, both good and bad, is a part of resiliency. Without respecting and listening the entire breadth of our feelings and experience, we are not whole or resilient. We are denying and there is no way to move from our current situation and we risk being further entrenched and stagnant. The experts have many different ways to explore adaption and resiliency. Yoga too has many concepts. Here are a few to ponder.

Brahmacharya: Broadly, Brahmacharya can be considered “wise use of energy”. It is a Yama, or a restraint as detailed in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Wise use of energy – what does that look like for you? Take a moment to consider the direction of thought energy and physical energy. Is it serving you? How

is it helpful and can it make of greater use of the mind and body elsewhere?

Vairagya: Vairagya translates to dispassion. It is doing everything that needs to be done (think best practices) and not concerning ourselves solely with the results of the outcome. Think about a marathon runner concerned more about winning a race than determining the proper training and engaging in the appropriate practice to achieve their best in the race. Logically, we know that planning and training is key. It is being in the moment and letting go of expectation

. Vairagya or dispassion allows us to concentrate on the productive practice and release the worry and gra

sping of the results. Here we can enjoy the process and

each small moment, and we can apply this to all the aspects of our life.

Kama: Kama is desire, wish, love, pleasure or affection. When hardship comes our way, it is easy to forget and forego the joys and desires of life. For example, we forget that g

oing for a walk in the moonlight makes us feel joyful. Kama is considered one of the four aims of life known as the Purusartha. Find time to spend focused on Kama, our wishes and our loves. We must ponder our deepest desi

res. Consider the senses, and what would pleasure them. Think smells, sights, touch, hearing, and taste. Think dance, music, tasty food, touch and affection, working with wood or wool, joyous smells, inspiring and awe making views and vistas. It could be painting, hiking and smelling pine trees, cooking, companionship, reading a story and noticing how old paper smells. Find small joys and experience glimmers of light and even make that light ourselves when we are burdened with a sea of darkness. Remain open to joy.

The practice of yoga allows space for us to be aware of the uncomfortable feelings and sensations and to also encourage change and the open the door to experience small joys. In our journey, may we continue to ask for help and give help. May we find space for our feelings and notice where we feel most comfortable and take time there. May we rest in resiliency in our deepest driving desires.

THE YOGA OF EMPTYING OF THE DISHWASHER

Yoga can be defined as union. I love the feeling when I have a sense of harmony, and wholeness. My body, my mind and my energy are moving at the same speed and toward the same purpose. I am connected directly to my focus or my purpose.

Sometimes my purpose is to empty the dishwasher. :/

If you hang around my house, you might hear me lament loudly about my dishwasher and kitchen duties. These duties often appear to be endless. I have a small European style dishwashing machine, and I seem to be standing over this appliance much of the day. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for this little miracle machine that makes my plates sparkle! I am completely aware that this is a first world problem. My reaction of frustration rightly proves that I am not always in the state of yoga.

The state of yoga allows us to cope and thrive through the ups and downs of life. When we are in the state of yoga, we let the external information come into our mind and consciousness but it does not consume us. When we are in the state of yoga, we have right actions. When we are in the state of yoga there is an efficiency and lightness that wells up in us. One has focus. A soft kind of focus that can overcome disruption, and the usual and unusual happenings of life.

When yoga happens and I am emptying a dishwasher, I notice nothing else around me. The only experience I am having is between me and my sparkling cutlery. I am unconcerned with an email I need to send or even a piece of dirt on the floor. These thoughts float by me to be brought back at a later time. I direct the plates, cups and bowls to their homes in their shelves and drawers. Here is where is gets interesting. With a soft eye, I notice how the plates and cups and bowls are stacked and my body/mind/breath are connected and attentive. Without consciously thinking, my body chooses a specific hand to pick up plates and stack them gracefully knowing the mixing spoon can go in the other hand and then there is no juggling or extra steps to get them to their homes.

I love how much joy I take in this little flow or vinyasa of movement and how the dishes, spoons and pots all find their way back to their places in the most effortless way. When I am in this state, I notice the dishwasher is emptied faster and I am calmer. This chore is very different when I am not in the state of yoga. I am rushing, stomping and, dare I say, grumbling. These times when I have something else on my mind – the experience is loud and inefficient.

I thought my “yoga of dishwashing” experience was something only I noticed. It so happened that I was hosting a visitors from overseas and she watched me while I cooked a breakfast for a house full of people. She said that she found it interesting to watch me work and she commented that no movement was wasted and each task was fluid and calm. The experience, she said, compared to watching a ballet and it was peaceful and efficient. We know it when we feel this, don’t we? Time flies by. We do not feel tired. She caught me on a good day. A day of yoga.

Being present can be heavy lifting but it is worth the practice. With this practice, we will be most efficient, most calm, and most happy. I invite you to watch yourself and others. Look for a connection. When you see it in others, you will feel calmer. When you focus on only the task in front at hand, you experience it yourself and you will feel more easeful and so will others around you. Start with the small things in your day. Focus on one thing and enjoy it. We are always pushing ourselves to work on the big stuff. Perhaps start with the small stuff like emptying the dishwasher, watering the plants, and grooming the dog to find that sweet connection.

Our yoga off the mat is the most important aspect of our practice. The little things add up. My wish is that you take time to cultivate and enjoy a time in yoga today.