Yogis Anonymous

It’s Already 8 Minutes Ago

bukowski The other night I was watching “Cosmos” on Netflix with my kids. In this particular episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson was explaining how it takes eight minutes for the light of the sun to reach the earth, so when we look at the sun, we’re really looking at the way the sun looked eight minutes ago. We never see it in real time. By the same token, when we look at a sunset, we’re seeing the image of the way the sun set eight minutes ago; what we’re watching has already happened.

The episode also covered astronomer William Herschel, and his son John, who amongst many other contributions, advanced the science of photography as we know it today. He grew up hearing about the stars from his father, who also explained to young John that many of the stars in the sky were not really there any longer. If the sun we see is really the sun from eight minutes ago, and many of the stars we see are no longer there, it’s all too understandable that we’d want to uncover what is real, and that the son of a man who spoke of such things would want to learn how to capture a moment in time.

Anyway, I’m sure I learned about the eight-minute time lapse at some point, but I guess it didn’t stick in my mind the way it did this time. I was aware of the sun a lot today, and kept thinking, “I’m looking at the past.” I mean, if we look up and the sun we’re seeing is the sun of eight minutes ago, how can any of us think we have a second to waste? Everything in the universe is in a constant state of motion. The earth, the sun, the stars the galaxies, our feelings, relationships, and us, ourselves—we come and we go.

It made me think about Instagram and our obsession with documenting everything. Some people are a little more obsessed than others, but it seems we’re all trying to say, “Look! I’m here, right?” And, “Here I am!” You go to watch your kid playing soccer or baseball, or you go to the Glee Club concert, and you wonder, “What must the kids think?” They look in the stands, or out into the audience, and they can’t make eye contact with their parents. They can’t even see mom’s or dad’s faces, all they can see are phones.

Of course it’s fine to document things from time to time. Most people enjoy looking at pictures from their childhood, or the meaningful moments in their lives as they grew into adults. But now, it’s like we’re documenting everything, all the time. “Look at this juice I just drank! I’m here! I exist!” The thing is, the second you’re talking about what you’re doing, the second you’re thinking about it, you aren’t in it anymore. You’ve taken yourself outside the experience.

I chose the quote on the poster because it made me laugh, but also because there’s a reason people (not all people, but let’s say a decent majority), love sex. You lose yourself. At least, you do if the sex is great and there’s a lot of feeling between you and your partner. You aren’t taking yourself out of the experience to document how you feel about it. “Hmmm, I’m enjoying this. This is great. Let me try to catch it from this angle so I can tweet about it.” Well, maybe some people are, but if we’re talking about truly great sex we are completely in and of the moment. Sex is not the only place we can experience this, obviously. You can get lost in nature on an incredible hike. You can unroll your yoga mat and get lost in the breath and other sensations in the body. You can get lost in a great book, you can become immersed in creating a delicious meal, you can salsa dance your way into losing yourself.

The thing is, it’s vital that you find a way to do just that, and frequently. Because when you lose that small self, that self full of ideas about who you are and who other people are and what you need and what you should have and how life should look and what that other person said or did and why that movie actually really sucked even though it won an Oscar and everyone else seems to be seeing something you aren’t, and also he looks like he gained weight since last season, and don’t you really deserve that raise, and Oh.My.God. When you can actually shut all that down and just join the flow and be present, you can also experience your true self. Your open, curious, engaged, immersed self. Your should-less self. And that is so important to do, because when you do that, you. YOU. You are present. You are present enough to recognize that the earth is spinning and some of the stars are already gone, already gone and the sun is shining the way it did eight minutes ago and you. You are part of all of that. You’re made of the same stuff as that sun and those stars and you are also spinning and moving and changing, and one day there will be a glimmer of you, a spark of you, a mark left by you, because you are here and you do matter, even if every moment of your life is not documented you are here. Don’t miss it. Don’t miss it.

Sending you love,

Ally Hamilton

Rest in Your True Nature

Yoga is a process of coming home to yourself. It’s a science, an art, a philosophy of stripping away anything that isn’t part of your authentic self. So much of the time, we’ve gotten confused along the way. We’ve taken on other people’s beliefs or ideas or philosophies and accepted them as our own, without question. Hatred can be taught this way, so can compassion. If you were lucky, your first influences taught you that you were of value. That you had an impact on the world around you. That it mattered how you felt. If you were fortunate, you were also taught that being kind and thinking about how your actions affect other people and the world around you would help you to connect and thrive.

Sometimes we have a lot of unlearning to do, though. Maybe we were not so lucky, and we learned that only certain feelings were okay, and that we had to repress anything that made the people around us feel uncomfortable or inadequate, like our sadness or our anger or our loneliness. There are so many people who reach adulthood and have no clue how they really feel, because they cut themselves off from their own intuition years ago.

If you come out of an abusive background you can count on having to unlearn quite a lot. Growing up in an environment where you make yourself invisible or invaluable depending on the moment requires a total suppression of anything that has to do with what you really need or want in your heart.

So many people are on the run, owned by their painful feelings. Repressed rage turns into depression. It takes a Herculean effort to push down an active volcano. So much energy, in fact, there isn’t much left to do anything else. Thus the lethargy and hopelessness.

For some people, it’s easy to say yes when yes is in their hearts, and it’s not difficult to say no when the situation warrants, but other people have to work to figure out what a yes feels like. Those same people might have to learn to give themselves permission to say no. Feeling that your worth is determined by other people’s perceptions of you sets you up for a lifetime of powerlessness.

Anyway, my point is, there are so many differing ways people might need to come home to themselves, and all of the ways that work require determination and dedication. You have to find the discipline to show up for yourself, and to lean in when you’d rather take off. If you find that what you’ve been doing isn’t working, and by that I mean, if life is not feeling good to you, it’s time to try something new, because time waits for none of us.

There are eight “limbs” in yoga practice. The physical part, the “asana” is just one limb. It’s a very useful entry point for many of us in the west, because we value doing over being, and it takes time to undo that programming. When you connect to your breath (pranayama), you also connect to something that is happening right now, in this moment. You are present and aware. When you start to organize your body into a pose, when you focus on lengthening your spine, or relaxing your shoulders, you’re also giving the mind a focal point that’s happening in the now. So you use your body to quiet your mind. If you’re paying attention to your breath, or you feel your feet on the floor, you aren’t spinning anymore. You aren’t fretting over your past or freaking out about your future, you are present, and that’s beautiful because life isn’t happening in your past or future. When you create space between your thoughts, you also create space to connect to that most authentic part of yourself. You get to breathe in that space.

Your body is full of wisdom about who you are and what you need to be at peace. It knows where you’re holding on, resisting, or contracting from your experience. if you give it the chance and you set up a compassionate and kind inner environment, your body will give these things over, it will help you to let go of those ideas or beliefs that are weighing you down, and then you can fly. Wishing that for you, and sending you love.

Ally Hamilton

P.S. You can practice with me right now, here.

LIFE. you.

Do you ever stop and think about how insane this is? You have “your life”, and some crazy idea you get to order it, you get to have control over how it’s going. You live somewhere (if you’re fortunate), and you may have a yard you think of as “your yard”, and in it you may have “your trees” (they’re not your trees). And your view. Your car, and your routine. Your spot in the room when you go to yoga. Your friends, your dreams, your job. The clothes you pick for yourself. Your identity, you know? Your list of things to do. Your schedule for today. As if it’s up to you. As if the entire thing, your entire life, every plan you’ve got couldn’t be turned on its head in the blink of an eye.

We think of life this way, though. It began on our birthday, many years ago, and we have our story about our lives as we look back on it. But life was happening long before we arrived, and it will continue on without us. It’s not our story, we’re just a strand in a gorgeous, unfolding mystery. The more we open to the other strands, the less we feel inclined to cling and grip and force things to be the way we want them to be.

Do the people in your life know how much you love them? Are you making that clear with your actions and the words you choose every day? If something happened to you today (and I certainly hope nothing but beautiful things happen for you today), what would be left undone? Unsaid? Unexplored? Life does not have a rollover plan for wasted moments.

The only thing you truly have any control over, is how you’re going to respond to whatever it is life is going to bring your way. Maybe something or someone amazing will cross your path. You get to decide if you open to that or you don’t. Maybe something devastating or disappointing will happen. You have the power only inasmuch as you’re able to open to those events, also. But please don’t suffer under the delusion that you’re in control and you can put off your joy and your fun and your yes for now, so you can enjoy those things, life’s most meaningful gifts, in your future. Tomorrow isn’t promised, every single day is a gift and an opportunity to be lit up from the inside, powered by your purpose here, spreading all the love you’ve got in your heart and co-creating the story as it unfolds.

You’re either in the flow, or you’re exhausting yourself swimming against the current. When people wear themselves down like that, it’s so painful, they just want to sleep. How many different ways do we have to do that? To disconnect, to check out, to numb out? People on gadgets tweeting or “checking in,” instead of checking in in the most important ways. Being with themselves, being aware of how things are within them, being with the person next to them, and checking in there, too. Instead, we have everyone racing everywhere because we’re all so important, you know? We have places to be and we’re “swamped” and “inundated”, and wow, I’m beat, so happy there’s a Starbucks! What are we distracting ourselves from, and why are we so afraid to sit still and open to the wonder within us and the wonder around us? That’s the only power you have, opening to things as they are, facing reality as it is. Sometimes it’s full of indescribable beauty. You are a part of that. A unique, amazing part. It would be such a shame to miss that. You don’t have to wait until Friday, until your next vacation, until things ‘Calm down.” The moment is always now. If you’re just arriving, welcome to this moment! So glad you’re here. Sending you love, Ally Hamilton