The Sky Beneath Us

Pandemic anxiety, social chaos and insecurity about the future is making us all uncomfortable. It feels like the sky is beneath our feet and we are trying to find solid ground among the clouds. Everything is uncertain. But as Wayne Dyer always said, “if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” While there are many negatives to the existence of COVID in our world, one gift it has brought is an acute awareness of how tenuous a hold we actually have on the “future.”

This is exactly the time for yoga. Yoga as a noun means the state of being stable in an unstable time. So whether we are in our first yoga class or are a long time practitioner, this work is more helpful than ever. The future is not here any more than you will ever get to the perfect yoga pose. The present moment is where you are, where you can find peace. So if you meet yourself on your mat (or your everyday life) as you are right this moment today, with a fresh beginner mind and you call on your practiced yoga skills to work toward balance, to pose and respond thoughtfully and repose/reflect/adjust as necessary, you will find yourself tenderly perched in the present moment.

If we let COVID teach us this valuable lesson, we may find that this new world view is much better than the old, habitual ways that kept us from appreciating the fleeting beauty of now. Think about it this way:

If your feet are in the clouds,
then your head must be on solid, supportive ground.

I invite you to let your feet grow wings and fly you to new places
as you let your head keep you tenderly grounded in the present.

Doesn’t that sound like an exciting way to live your life?