Newest post for the fine folks at the Storm.  Check out how they are spreading their joy this month.

I was going for a deeper backbend.  For me, that’s not all that deep.  The whole time I kept trying to get my head lower.   I moved from my head and was stuck in my mind’s idea of how much further I should be.  I was focussed on that future place with no respect for the truth of who I am now.  And I had made my happiness contingent on my success.

But that’s not how it works.  I can’t pull myself into a deeper bend.  The body will resist as long as I resist accepting its truth. I can’t force it.  I have to learn bend and still have room to breathe.  I have to make space for the bend by opening the opposite side.  In this particular case it was my chest or, more rightly, my heart.  So I tried again.  

I pushed my heart open and expanded my chest then went back.  My head last to follow.  I wasn’t where I wanted to be but still I could breathe and I was closer than I was before.  And that feeling, that inhale within the deepening of my bend, it was bliss.

As I inhaled freely, I felt the air, felt the life moving through me.  Like the wind. I was grateful for that moment.  I held that inspired breath and found joy in my awareness.  And filled with the vibration of this joy, I followed my exhale down into a forward fold.  Until I was empty.  And I held that emptiness and listened.  Somewhere in that beautiful silent space between breaths with all the life dancing outside of me just waiting for me to breathe it in, I understood something deeper. Universal message received.

It’s all right there in the moment.    All the joy I could want for is there.  All the bliss, all the love.  They only exist in the moment and are never contingent upon what may or may not lie ahead.  It is easy to see this in the gentle breezes, but still there when I’m bowed by the wind.   When life deepens my bend, I must move from the heart to capture my fullest piece of this wild wind.  I must let it fill my lungs with life and sit with it in that quiet space.  Here I can see all that I have to be grateful for and know all the joy my life already offers if I choose to accept it.  And I do.  With deep gratitude and an open heart, I do.

Life can expand or contract us, depending on our view.  Is it a backwards bend or a heart opener? They are one in the same. As long as there is breath in our lungs, there is something to be thankful for.   Somewhere in the space of our gratitude, joy unfolds before our eyes.  And begs us to expand our hearts to allow it entrance to our souls.  We can open ourselves to love in every moment and let love open our eyes to the joy of life.  The choice is ours.  Be grateful, choose love, find joy.

“The purpose of life is to watch and experience living. To enjoy living every moment of it. And to live in environments which are calm, quiet, slow, sophisticated, elegant. Just to be. Whether you are naked or you have a golden robe on you, that doesn’t make any difference. The ideal purpose of your life is that you are grateful – great and full – that you are alive, and you enjoy it.”

― Yogi Bhajan