Stay, Breathe, and Feel

May 2020

Are your days a combination of bright spots and breakdowns like mine? A friend just told me that she bounces back and forth between being okay and feeling like she cannot bear another minute of this current pandemic reality. I'm sure you can relate. 

I can't help but liken our current situation to what B.K.S. Iyengar says about holding a yoga posture–that the posture begins the very moment we want to leave it. We hold our posture the best we can, breathe deep, connect to our strength, hold on for dear life, and wait for the sweet release. This is exactly where we are right now. 

The road map to growth lives in these moments when we have reached our edge. It's here that we have a choice to either meet and embrace our present experience (no matter how dark or intense), or to resist it. To resist is to clench, contract, repress, deflect, or flee. To grow is to stay, soften, and feel. The question we can ask ourselves when we are at our breaking point in a posture or in life is this: Am I willing to sit with the uncomfortable in order to receive the wisdom I need to grow?  

While this may not be the most entertaining approach, it's the essence of our yoga practice. As you meet your edge moment-to-moment in our current reality, the invitation is to stay, breathe, and feel. Yoga, meditation, and prayer are all incredible tools to help you through this. Practice often.

I send my love and well wishes to all of you!

- Jackie Mahrou