Birthday Present
At the beginning of this month, I committed to a new sort of challenge, one in which I would practice yoga every day for the month of June (my birth month!). In my head, this particular challenge was less about the “exercise” aspect of yoga (although that was important, too), than a commitment to being present.
The concept of being present is one that affects our lives from the moment we open our eyes to the moment our head hits the pillow at night. Our ability to be present (or lack thereof) is made evident in the minutiae of our day-to-day.
It’s in the small interactions with the people we meet along our way – the bus driver, the Starbucks barista, pedestrians on the street, doormen, coworkers. Did you smile at them? Say good morning? Make eye contact? Or were you typing away on an iPhone or Blackberry or drowning out the sounds of the streets with headphones?
It’s also in the more significant interactions throughout our day. Did you sit in a meeting and give your undivided attention? Or did you read emails, Facebook status updates, and Twitter feeds? Did you take the time and energy to catch up with a close friend or family member? Did you share your wholehearted presence with the people that are most important to you?
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it’s in our interactions with ourselves, from the food we put into our body, to the clothes we wear, to the way we treat ourselves. Did you feed your body nourishing food or fill it with junk? Did you look in the mirror and give yourself a compliment or a put-down? Were you present today or did you go through the motions?
Each moment, each interaction, each inhalation, is another opportunity to act, speak, and breathe with our best intentions and with an open heart. And those intentions ripple out across the surface of our lives, determining how well we do our jobs, how we are perceived by others, how successful we are in our relationships, and how we care for our physical bodies and emotional cores. When you step back, are you satisfied with what you brought to the table (or the mat)?
My point: yoga is a whole lot more than laying out a mat and doing downward dog. It’s taking a moment to breathe, appreciate life, listen to what’s going on in your body, and ultimately, be fully present in whatever it is that you are doing – for both your own benefit and the benefit of those around you. It’s realizing that we’re all connected and that our words and actions and energy matter.
I know being present is a lot to ask with our multitasking, social media-obsessed, text-messaging, overstimulated lives; but as I turn the corner on another year of life on this planet, I’m going to continue giving it my best shot.
Namaste.
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