Impermanence

I hope you all had a great weekend. I am excited to be back home and teaching back at Dandelight after a couple of busy travel weeks. Last week I was in NY. In addition to seeing family and a few friends, I spent two days teaching my Mindfulness for Actors curriculum in the summer conservatory at Michael Howard Studios; an acting school in NYC that I have taught at for the past 12 years. I also had the pleasure of teaching at my old yoga studio, Hastings Yoga, in Westchester NY. 

It is powerful to step back, to touch the past and combine it with what is now. In teaching the acting students, I don’t have that much time with them to crystalize some of the key mindfulness principles that I share in one form or another here each week with all of you. There is the idea that our thoughts are repetitive and powerful and that we create stories that oftentimes are not true. I notice these stories in my own life and when I debunk them, there is such freedom.  

Impermanence was another key focus in our time together. Although we all intellectually understand that literally nothing is permanent, day to day it is hard to not get attached to the fear of things changing and the uncertainty around what inevitable change brings. 

At first it can be a bit daunting to process, that literally everything is in a constant state of change and decay, but once we surrender the fear there is an opportunity to understand that because things are always changing we don’t have to get too wrapped up in the current state. It is not permanent, nothing is. We then can see the opportunity that exists more clearly; to appreciate where we are moment to moment, since the moments will be in constant change. 

I felt that opportunity in this last trip to NY. Subtle but noticeable changes in my old home were reminders of the natural course of things. After teaching class at Hastings Yoga I got the chance to catch up with my friend who is the owner. She shared that after 13 years she is pivoting away from owning a studio and pursuing a different path. I am very proud of her for writing her own next story and not listening to the ones in her mind and it was just one more reminder to me that change is the natural flow. Everything is always shifting around us and we are shifting too. With practice we can find grace and comfort in those shifts. Happy Practicing!