“It’s always too early to quit” ....Norman Vincent Peale
“Everything that is today could not be if it were not for that which was before” ...Abraham-Hicks
Where is there? For all of our own unique hopes, dreams and ambitions we may have our own definition of “getting there.” The Dalai Lama says karma is what determines it all. Logic certainly doesn’t, when we see someone who does all things possible, taking the right steps, but still not achieving what they set out to do, whether it is to find a relationship, create their own business or find their desired job. If karma determines this should we just stop trying? I think we can choose to simply keep learning and growing from it all. Even if we do get there, a new there is created. When we attain one goal or success in life it is most ungratifying to not reach for another challenge, another opportunity to grow. In your yoga practice it can be a new pose or a more advanced level pranayama. There is always somewhere new to be.
Robert Fisher, a man I have taught Kundalini Yoga to in New York City, has written a book. I knew little about Robert, except he kept appearing in class in various places I taught over the years and that he had written a book. Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Robert on his new blog talk radio show and in turn I received his book. “Monergy” is a book where Robert shares lessons learned from his life experiences. This book sheds some light on what some people consider “getting there” and what they will do to “get there.” If getting there means lying, cheating, deceiving, stealing or intimidating and dominating others, is it worth it? Some think so. Robert and I think "no." He writes conversationally about choices, detachment, the way we treat others and ourselves as well as the power we gain from meditation (personal power, the real kind, not power over others). Society emphasizes getting there perhaps too much – when we get rich, famous, etc. we are there. Where? And what if we don’t? Motive, the energy behind what you want from your life, is key. I taught a well-known actress for a few months while she was shooting a film in New York City. She was very private and I could feel that she took her craft of acting seriously and was grateful for the good luck she had in her career. I later read an article where someone interviewed her and said it seemed she could take or leave acting. That is true detachment. I have reached for things in my life and not attained them, not gotten there, yet life is still here, growth and learning is still possible. That is a gift.
My ninety-six year old father recently sent me a clipping from the New York Times about a billionaire businessman I had taught for a brief time about ten years ago. The article reported that this man has been diagnosed and treated for brain cancer and has one more big business turnaround he is working on and hopes to accomplish. Abraham Hicks says we are never there yet. In the end we are not the determiners.
Fifteen years ago I was the maid of honor for a dear friend. She married a very successful businessman and had four beautiful children. This is all she had wanted from life. Mothers must feel they are there when they watch their children grow up and see what their lives become. Mothers look so forward to grandparenting and growing old with their spouse. For my friend her karma has been to battle a rare form of cancer bravely for the past seven years. Her husband sent out an email this week saying she is in the hospital fighting for each breath. Her eight and ten year old girls painted her nails. “A bittersweet moment,” he wrote.
The 30 minutes in the morning I take to do the one minute breath* I appreciate all the more. Both the businessman and my dear friend have touched my life. He has brushed it, she in a deep bond. Today I discovered this quote in a book review online:
“Yoga without pranayama (breath expansion) is just a bunch of jerky movements.”
To take it further, when the breath stops we no longer live. When we draw our last breath, will we remember moments of joy, bliss, laughter, contentment, beauty, smiles, wonder as well as the moments of worry, fear and wondering what if?
“World Enough and Time,” by Christian McEwen is a book coming out in September by Bauhan Publishing, a New England publisher. She asks us to look at how we live and create our lives, moment to moment. Our technology moves faster and faster. People pride themselves on being too busy and tired or just don’t know how not to be that. What are we all chasing after? Will we ever be there? I do question when attractive young women on their career track come to our retreat married to jobs that require long hours, sometimes much travel and whose lives seem short changed somehow. Ms McEwen dares to suggest that the recession may be a good thing, a forced way to reassess the way we are living.
The businessman came to me because he wanted to learn to meditate. He could not meditate for sixty seconds because he said his thoughts intruded and he felt he would miss out on something by simply sitting with his thoughts. Someone might see his life as more fulfilling than someone else, more like he has “gotten there.” Is that true?
Where is there? Do a bunch of jerky movements make up your yoga practice or life? Or do you breathe into it slowly, to just be. Again we are not the determiners of the breaths we will breathe. What we can determine is what and how we do the breath and life, so that wherever we have gotten, it is just where we are supposed to be.
Yogis believe that the numbers of breaths we each have are pre-determined at birth.
* One Minute Breath
Given by Yogi Bhajan
Close your eyes and notice the natural flow of your breath in and out through the nostrils.
Start to count your breath. The ratio should be the same on both the suspension and holding of the breath, i.e. the inhale, and the exhale.
To do the one minute breath the inhale will be slow to a count of 20, hold the breath in for twenty counts and exhale slowly for 20 counts.
If this is too much, create a shorter breath; 8-8-8/10-10-10/12-12-12 for example.
Do this for as long as you can up to 30 minutes, shorter is fine and see what you can build up to!
Donna Amrita Davidge owns and operates www.sewallhouse.com in Island Falls, Maine, which was chosen Top Ten Yoga Retreat worldwide in 2009-2010 and has been featured in many publications.