Change is ever present

Yes change is inevitable and always present. I was never that great with change I freely admit it. I resisted it, compromised to side step it, held on tight to the known to avoid it. Which in the end I know in my head that I can't. I did my level best however. The last two years have been all about change for me, most of it I would categorize as not fun or anything I willingly would have done. I am now squarely looking at more change but this time coming with some hard learned lessons and wisdom.

I am about to close a chapter in life after 14 years. A chapter that I have mixed feelings about. I know it is the right time and on the one hand I feel freedom like I have never felt before, on the other hand I feel sadness and a deep sense of loss. I know that home is not really a place but more a sense of something deeper inside but place is where we sleep, where we keep our things that give us comfort and that space that tethers us to a place in time and space. Moving from a home where I raised my daughter, created a family with someone and had a way of life that I have so many memories both good and not so is bittersweet.

I dread thinking about having to clean out 14 years of stuff in this house, it's a lot of stuff. On the other side of that I feel that I can truly release some of what holds me back by simplifying, getting smaller and passing on what I no longer truly need or want. This will create BIG space for me to fill with all sorts of brand new things, new beginnings as my realtor reminded me. I have lived on my Island for 24 years and love the rhythm of life here, the beach, the water, the people and the pace. I can get to the city if I choose to do whatever I want but have the place to return to that truly replenishes and restores me. As I move into a space where I am putting myself further out into the world than I ever thought I would that feeling of having the place to return to restore and replenish is so very important. Not sure yet just where I will go, for the time being it will be here on the Island and from there I will wait to see what next adventure presents itself to me.

I was speaking with my friend Anthony and he said why don't you move into the city and my response was well I don't know anyone here. He paused and said well you have all my friends that are now your friends. Anthony has a huge heart, I love that about him. At that point he just opened my world a little bigger than it was. My life is pretty set here on the Island but that could change and it is so wonderful to know that I can let go of the feeling that moving to the city would be going where I know no one. I know that I could meet new people with time but for me personally I am all about feeling connected and thanks to Anthony I am connected in the city now too.

As I think about all of this change and the spaces it has opened and the lightness it has brought along the way, I think about my yoga as well. How through all of the change in the last two years and this big change I am in now I have my mat and my practice. Yoga is all about change as well. We start out new not knowing much and delve deeper with time, learning about breath, motion, our bodies. Your body changes every single day, balance changes, open spaces change and just physically things change. Taking that to the mat as a student of yoga you learn to explore gently and with great care how to move with how your body presents itself in any given moment. Sometimes with more awareness than others and sometimes with very small incremental changes and sometimes big leaps forward. In the last two years my mat has been ever present, my yoga, there in good times and in bad. Many times it was yoga that helped me to heal, mend and repair my body, mind and spirit. As I teach my students to think about what small change they could make in any pose to find more ease, my personal practice has brought that firmly off the mat. Sometimes with great resistance on my part but with a knowing that as I can't force my body to go into a pose I also can't force myself into a space I am not ready for either. All of this and so much more has brought new awareness as I teach my yoga students. I feel that I teach from a deeper place than ever before and have so much more compassion.

So as you approach your yoga practice or your life remember that change is and will always be there. Sometimes scary, sometimes exciting and though you may wish to resist moving into a new space in your life, know that with time, gentleness and compassion you can expand and move through to a brand new space. Just as your body can expand and move through asanas on your yoga mat, you can expand your life. Listen to your heart and your body just as you do when practicing yoga and they will guide you on your journey.

I hope that any change that you are now experiencing will flow through you as smoothly as possible. Remember that even when you are in the midst of change and it doesn't seem so, you will come out the other side knowing more than you did going in. You have the control to experience it with curiosity rather than fear and resistance and ask yourself along the way, what am I needing to learn here. You just might be pleasantly surprised what the answers are.

Namaste,
Sherry