Sometimes in our efforts to expand our lives, we tend to do more rather than less.
Slowly I've been realizing that change needs spaciousness. Becoming a new mom needs space. I rushed back into the regularity of things a few months into motherhood, thinking one must not forget herself. I thought so many moms fell into this trap of forgetting, and I vowed to myself, never. But in doing so, I failed to create space for this new person I was becoming. So in my rushed efforts to get back on the mat & start teaching again, and to start traveling the world once more, I too fell into a kind of forgetting. I forgot to nourish myself as a mother, not realizing that she has different needs than that of a single woman traveling with single person needs, of which surfing & yoga took the top spots. As physically demanding these activities were, nothing can quite compare to the demands of purely breastfed child. To nourish a child by giving him your milk means to nurture the very body that makes it. But I missed all that. I forgot because I was so afraid to forget.
Fear presents us with the greatest irony ~ when we come from a place of fear, we go towards the direction it wants us to.
Fear comes from forgetting who we truly are, what we're made of, and what we need. The only way through this is by remembering, and that requires space. Space to listen to ourselves, to what the heart has to say. Space to hear the voice that tells us when we are not okay. Space to mind the breath, and when it starts to come in jagged spurts, space is what we need, so we can pause and take a rest.
Breathing comes easy when we surrender, and lately I've been doing just that. Our lives will be infinitely fuller when we learn to create & hold space within in, rather than stuffing it with too much of what we can really live without. We know what we need. All we have to do is listen.
Slowly I've been realizing that change needs spaciousness. Becoming a new mom needs space. I rushed back into the regularity of things a few months into motherhood, thinking one must not forget herself. I thought so many moms fell into this trap of forgetting, and I vowed to myself, never. But in doing so, I failed to create space for this new person I was becoming. So in my rushed efforts to get back on the mat & start teaching again, and to start traveling the world once more, I too fell into a kind of forgetting. I forgot to nourish myself as a mother, not realizing that she has different needs than that of a single woman traveling with single person needs, of which surfing & yoga took the top spots. As physically demanding these activities were, nothing can quite compare to the demands of purely breastfed child. To nourish a child by giving him your milk means to nurture the very body that makes it. But I missed all that. I forgot because I was so afraid to forget.
Fear presents us with the greatest irony ~ when we come from a place of fear, we go towards the direction it wants us to.
Fear comes from forgetting who we truly are, what we're made of, and what we need. The only way through this is by remembering, and that requires space. Space to listen to ourselves, to what the heart has to say. Space to hear the voice that tells us when we are not okay. Space to mind the breath, and when it starts to come in jagged spurts, space is what we need, so we can pause and take a rest.
Breathing comes easy when we surrender, and lately I've been doing just that. Our lives will be infinitely fuller when we learn to create & hold space within in, rather than stuffing it with too much of what we can really live without. We know what we need. All we have to do is listen.