It’s not IN the way but IS the Way

I hope you all had a great week. I am realizing I am sending this out on Sept 11th at 9:00am which is the time 22 years ago when we experienced a national tragedy. I just want to take a moment to honor that suffering. 

This past week I shared with students that a couple of people close to me are struggling through prolonged periods of difficulty. I remember in the past going through a several year period of time in physical chronic pain where at times I thought it would never end. The feelings that we cycle through during these long challenging stretches are intense. Usually there is questioning- “Why is this happening to me”, and anger “This isn’t how its supposed to be”, often jealousy “Why can my students still practice yoga and I can’t?” and despair “Why won’t this difficulty end?.”

After we come through a challenge, there can be an opportunity for perspective. Perhaps a learning or a clarity as to why something happened the way it did and with that learning the opportunity to not repeat the same difficulty over and over again.The universe will keep serving us up the same lessons until we learn them.

The power that mindfulness offers is a chance, when we can pause, to gain a bit of perspective during the difficulty. This is when it can be the most valuable in minimizing suffering.

When something feels like a deviation off the path we have the chance to understand that, in fact, the difficulty is part of the path to minimizing suffering. We can ask the question; “What if I could see what I am going through as not IN the way but instead AS the way?”— the way to learning, the way to evolving and the way to a clearer understanding that leads to less suffering. 

This is what I tasked my students with both on and off the mat. First we practice with small things… on the mat adjusting to whatever the body is offering (and not offering) with a perspective not of frustration but of acceptance that it is part of the path on the mat.  

Off the mat with small everyday frustrations we can begin to practice this same idea. If we get stuck in traffic and are a few minutes late; we can be angry at the other cars and the traffic lights or we can accept where we are in that moment, learn that we should leave a few minutes earlier next time and let the rest go.

The more we practice this perspective in our everyday life, the better we get at being able to access it during those prolonged difficult times. The hope is to cultivate an understanding that what feels like it’s “in the way” usually has something to teach us and IS the only way ultimately to less suffering. I am wishing you all the power of perspective this week.