We find ourselves this week
in the continuation of the story of the Pandava brothers. They have just lived out their 13th
year in exile successfully in disguise, and awake on the last day to find that
Duryodhana (their cousin and exil-er) has stolen all of King Virata’s
cattle. Arjuna decides to reveal himself
to the king’s son Uttara to help him go fight Duryodhana to reclaim their
cattle. They set off to find Arjuna’s
weapons which he hid in a tree outside the city. Armed, they confront Duryodhana and his army
soon after, and Arjun, instead of harming them calls down the “weapon of sleep”. As the army sleeps, Arjun and Uttara free the
cattle and send them back to the kingdom.
Duryodhana wakes to see Arjun and Uttara fleeing with the cattle back to
safety. He asks his brother Bhishma
where his bow is, to which Bhishma answers “It is on the ground, as you might
expect when you fall asleep during a battle.”
How often do we find
ourselves in a situation and “wake up” and wonder how we ended up there? It is so easy to fall asleep to our lives! Sometimes it happens because there are
situations and aspects of our lives that we don’t want to see. Let’s face it, life is sometimes easier when
we’re asleep! We can also check out by
simply taking things for granted. When
we moved here 2 years ago and my husband started with his new company, the
owner told him that he wanted to meet with him weekly for the first year, not
to check in on what Arjun (my husband, yes the same name as the hero in our
story!) was doing, but so that he could give him an “outsider” perspective on
how things were going. Arjun could see
things with fresh eyes and those meetings had profound affects for both him and
the company.
So why wake up? Most times when we choose to be asleep (i.e.
ignore) something that’s going on it’s because we’re hoping that it will go
away. But that rarely happens - most
times we are just putting off something that is inevitable. So when we choose to wake up and be aware we
become co-participants with the Universe in creating the life we desire for
ourselves. We put ourselves in the drivers seat, cruise control off.
When we practice yoga we
realize that there are so many parts of our bodies that have been
“asleep”. In class this week we worked
on Shin Loop and Ankle Loop, waking up parts of our bodies that we don’t often
think about, and that often have a hard time engaging. What I heard from my students in every class
was, wow, that was hard, but old familiar poses felt totally different! And many got into poses they hadn’t been able
to before. When we choose to wake up
our awareness of ourselves deepens, and we wake up to the miracle and richness
of our lives. And if what we wake up to
doesn’t feel like miracles and richness right off the bat, once we’re aware of
whatever it is, we can choose to make a change in that direction. It’s not easy. But it is totally worth it.
Off the mat practice: Take a
moment to do a little inventory. What
have you been asleep to in your life?
Sometimes this is hard to see for ourselves, so ask trusted and loving
friends to reflect back to you if you need help (like Arjun at his new company,
they have “outside” perspective). What
have you been taking for granted (your job, spouse, kids, housekeeper, friend,
your health, your pet, etc.)? Choose to
stay aware and honest with yourself this week.
On the mat:
Take an extra long savasana
this week, and make a commitment to stay awake, aware and absolutely relaxed
for the duration.
Open To Grace: Take a breath
and wake up to this moment - not what happened earlier, not plans for later,
right now.
Muscular Energy: Wake up the
bones by hugging the muscles to them.
Feel every muscle in the
body enlivened and aroused with the awareness of your highest consciousness.
Shin/Ankle Loop: Engage calf
muscle and press it forward. As your calf muscle wakes up, feel yourself wake
up to what you’ve been taking for granted in your life.
As you lift and spread your
toes, spread your awareness to all aspects of your life, the good, the bad, the
ugly.
Organic Energy: Send out blessings to those you’ve taken for
granted.
Offer your light to dark
places that are still asleep.
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