Keep Coming Back

I had a slow start to my Sunday after a busy week with work, a training course and a poorly father-in-law.

I was reading The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday in bed with a cup of tea, and as so often happens, the advice resonated with the theme I am currently teaching in my group classes. It was about letting go and realising that you don’t have to believe there is a god directing the universe, you just need to stop believing that you’re the director!

This comes up in Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra; Īsvara Pranidhāna means surrender to a higher power, or realising you are not the centre of the universe. A meditative practice can be very helpful.

I got up, and while cleaning my teeth, I thought more about meditation – what it means for me and how to best teach it.

I think the practice itself is bringing the mind’s attention back to the mantra I use when it has wandered off. You don’t have to have a mantra, just have an object, phrase, word, your breath, or anything to focus the mind on. When the mind flits – and it will – you Keep Coming Back.

I then pottered slowly, quite happily sorting a wash out, a bit of tidying, I watered my plants. Home and family, all our close relationships are like meditation too – you Keep Coming Back. There are breaks – you go to work and then you go home. You may go away for a week or off on a course, but you Keep Coming Back. I have one of my kids living back at home for a while, the other lives away, they are making their own lives which makes me very happy. Although it is less frequent, they Keep Coming Back.

On Thursday and Friday, I am going to Cardiff to meet two old friends. One I met age seven, the other is someone I was very close to 2000-2010 and then lost touch. These two women are very important to me, they have impacted my life and we Keep Coming Back to the friendship.

So, when you know who and what matters, what works, what you enjoy, what makes you feel safe you can Keep Coming Back. The length of time away is irrelevant – the people and places you need are there. The practice is returning to them.

This is true for your Yoga as well. If you haven’t been in class or for 1:1 yoga therapy session for ages, it’s okay, just know that you can come back whenever you need to.