Isn’t it great how nice it feels when you’re not worrying about anything? There’s a lightness, a freedom, a sense of well being.
Just as yoga teaches us to be spacious and connected, you can use this practice to stop worrying about things and reduce stress and anxiety. To literally lighten up!
How does this work?
Well, when you get contracted, such as when you’re afraid or judgmental, there’s a sense of disconnect from the bigger energy of freedom. Spirit never stops supporting you, yet sometimes we just forget to take notice and feel that support.
Generally feelings of contraction come from fretting over things that are not your responsibility or under your control. Like how your loved one acts, or something you did in the past. Focusing on these things brings you out of the Here and Now, and out of your sense of self.
Personally, I’ve worked on this issue a lot in life, and one of the most helpful things for me is to remember that when it comes down to it, the only person I am truly responsible for is myself. To practice that, I have to let everyone else have their own experience without trying to project my ideas on them.
This isn’t always an easy practice, but by letting go of what you think others should be doing and just living your own life in the best way for you, it actually takes a whole lot of pressure away.
Becoming spacious and reconnected melts the contraction and therefore the fear. Plug in to Source, and worries dissolve into joy.
Mini-Meditation:
Sit beautifully and turn to your breath.
Invite your awareness to become spacious.
Feel your breath in the back of your lungs,
Feel beyond your skin.
Lovingly tell your mind and heart to let down their walls.
Say to yourself, “I am open to receive the gifts of the moment”
Allow this spacious receptivity to be your whole world
As you feel your breath move in and out.
This centered and connected state is your true self.
Here, you have a ‘big picture’ perspective from which to view the world.
When you are centered and feel free to be who you are,
It gives you a chance to ALLOW others to be who they are.
And then you can simply enjoy each moment as it comes.
Hakuna Matata!
(Hakuna matata is a Swahili phrase that is literally translated as “There are no worries”.)