TIME

Reading from Tuesday, April 28, 2015 yoga class

From the Jennifer Reis yoga blog

Jennifer is the yoga teacher I took my yoga nidra training with at Kripalu in Lenox, Massachusetts.  She is a lovely and kind teacher.   This piece is excellent.

"Recently, I felt my energy depleted, partially due to the negative mantra in my head saying 'There's not enough time.'  Does this sound familiar to you?  It's neither a useful nor correct belief, because there's always enough time for what is important.

Learning to say 'no' to what doesn't serve us can open up a ton of time for things that matter and are meaningful to you.  The average person will watch the equivalent of 9 years of TV in their lifetime!  Maybe you don't watch TV but you can probably see somewhere that you could curb your enthusiasm--maybe it's shopping, internet or social media, video games, or even spending time with people who don't enrich your life.

I recall Stephen Cope saying that people who are extraordinary are extraordinary because of what they say 'no' to in order to keep their forces on their chosen focus.  To me that sounds a lot like living life as a meditation.  However for me, the mantra of "there's not enough time' got stuck in my head!  Every night from 8-11pm I was furiously doing all the housework that needed doing: laundry, dishes, cleaning.  I was tired and I was pushing!  My body said 'rest' and my mind said 'you have to get this done now--there's not enough time during the day.'

I reflected on the yin-yang symbol--its an exact mirror of the rhythms of day and night and offers instruction on how its best to manage our own energy. Half of our time and Earth's time is awake and active in the white.  And half of our time and Earth's time is resting and retreating in black.

I'm inspired by Benedictine Monks who for hundreds of years have followed the yin-yang of night and day with The Great Silence.   From 8pm-8am they practice silence together, a time to go inward, rest, reflect.

Replace the mantra 'there is not enough time' with the mantra 'there is enough time for everything.'                             OR
Rest, rest, rest, take rest instead of 'get it done!'