New
It’s hard to believe it has been a year since I last wrote here. In the fall of 2023, I made a promise to myself (and to you), to write a monthly blog post on the intersections of yoga philosophy with daily life. Yoga is a moment to moment practice, and how we choose to live each moment is up to us.
But then, life got busy. Things changed. I got caught up.
It’s time to come back to the present.
As human beings, we don’t spend much time there, in the present. More often than not, we are agonizing over the emotions, events or experiences of the past. Or, we are preoccupied with worry about the future.
This is how we steal time from ourselves. So caught up are we with the impact of what happened before, and so concerned are we with what may happen after, that we forget to simply BE.
In yoga philosophy, this human tendency is connected to the Yama, or ethical guideline, of Asteya. This concept is often defined as non-stealing, in that it emphasizes relying on our inner resources and taking only what we need from others. But even more, it encourages us to consider the ways we steal from ourselves and others by not living with integrity in the present moment.
When we are caught up in worries about the past or the future, we steal from our own present moment. In doing so, we deny ourselves all the riches that this moment has to offer. In essence, we miss out on life.
Yoga philosophy encourages us to view each moment as if it is an opportunity to experience something new. Every moment provides us with a world of possibilities that, if we are open to them, become clear in a heartbeat.
Could we, as this new year begins, consider how our lives might be if we viewed each moment as if it were entirely new? How would our relationships with others change if we met them in every moment as if they were brand new to us? What would happen if, with each breath, we shed the layers of our past, released the worries of our future and simply eased into the present?
I hope you will join me in welcoming each moment of this new year with curiosity and wonder. Let the newness of each moment be your guide.
Thank you for being here.