Be The Eye Of The Hurricane with LeeAnn at Yoga Loka: Reno, Nevada: May 21, 2018
The eye of the storm is calm and has clarity. Closest to her, in weather parlance is the eye wall, which has the most ferocious activity of the entire storm. It seems to mimic real life, or at least my life at this juncture of activity.
When I looked at our May tour schedule I thought it would be a piece of cake. Five shows, one state, and a close one at that. What could be easier and more enjoyable than a mini tour though California?
Even before we left on the first leg, there was a substantial reroute, which brought us back into our new home of Reno for a day and a half, which was more complicated than it sounds because our new home is a shell, teeming with contractors, workmen, drapery consultants, plumbers, yard maintenance, deliveries, and a host of seemingly non stop activities including the most taxing of all, a bazillion of decisions. Paint color, drawer pull, carpet or tile? Drapery or blinds, chandelier or recessed lighting?
On any given day, we all are making millions of decisions that affect our life. As my teacher Ravi Ravindra says, we are either slave to the forces around us, or we can be willing servants. Sometimes it really does feel like being in hurricane strength winds of change. The key to not getting blown up, just like being in a hurricane is to open all the windows and doors to relieve pressure and let the storm blow through.
This is what the practices of yoga help us do. Relieve the pressure of the storms. I’d been trying to make it to a yoga class since 8 am, and at 4 pm I finally pulled myself away because it felt like any second I’d blow up.
LeeAnn’s class was a combination of easy peasy gentle yoga and restorative. It wasn’t what I wanted, which was a rockin’ vinyasa with advanced poses that would stretch the fibers of my being but being desperate for relief I went anyway. Again I was shown that we have a choice at any time to push and pull and unravel our way to relaxation, or we could just simply relax. LeeAnn used the metaphor of the eye of the hurricane.
To be truly calm requires humility, or as Ravi suggests ‘ willing servants’. Absolutely necessary is a quiet heart. It felt important to practice this today because I’ve been heavily active in pursuing my heart’s desires. I get spicy when I feel things aren’t going my way. I’ve gotten pretty good when a tour is rerouted, less so when my house is gutted.
My new house is a project to practice new ways of being. Stripping away the things that don’t serve the beautiful potential, and rebuilding her with love and humility and awe and respect as much as new curtains, appliances, and just the right color of tile grout.
I wonder if she can feel it?
I know I can feel humility melting my “I know everything about everything” need to be right. Would you rather be right, or would you rather be free, asks Byron Katie.
I’ll take freedom any day. And today I found a little more of it by practicing humility.
Humility is perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore; to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble.—plaque on Dr. Bob’s desk and a teaching from AA.
Health, Love, and Rock N Roll.
My new house is a project to practice new ways of being. Stripping away the things that don’t serve the beautiful potential, and rebuilding her with love and humility and awe and respect as much as new curtains, appliances, and just the right color of tile grout.