Open , Open, and Open again

The simple assignments are sometimes the hardest to do.

Open. Open to absolutely EVERYTHING.

We naturally close down and contract. Our bodies do it habitually and for protection. Our minds do it because they are trying to keep us safe, clear, and separate. The price we pay for separation and protection is tightness, pain, and negativity. And so, the task becomes OPENING all the time. Over and over again.

In yoga class you can start with your physical body. Your body is tight and constricted. It has compression in certain areas. Then you step on your mat for an hour or so and somehow those closed parts start to open. And you do it week after week and you start to notice even more opening. More flexibility in your body. Maybe even more flexibility in your mind if you’re starting to learn any philosophy in your asana class.

You can stop there. Just opening your body a little bit is a movement towards opening. Just getting out of pain is a step. It takes away the distraction that pain was creating, so that you can be more present in your life.

But going deeper. Your mind gets so closed all the time. Mind gets constricted too. It gets wrapped around its own ideas so tightly that it can’t see anything else. It coalesced around particular ideas about the world and your place in it when you were very small and now those ideas are running your life in the background. When those ideas are healthy for you, that’s not a problem. But when they’re not as healthy they cause problems. A tight mind leads to a tight life. But it IS possible to open it.

So you can start to meditate - you start to see those thoughts, and when they’re seen they start to dissolve.

And you explore other ways to loosen the mind. In my coaching practice I hold space and ask questions designed to get your mind to stretch and become a little more flexible. You start to learn ways to open your own mind too. When that happens, new possibilities emerge. And when new possibilities start to open up you start to deeply change in the direction of more openness and FREEDOM.

Ultimately we’re headed towards opening up until there’s nowhere else to go - you’re just completely wide open like the sky. Yogis would call it Samadhi or Enlightenment. Most of us won’t get to the point that we’re living in that state always. But we can touch it. Every time we feel the delight of dropping a negative thought pattern or habit we have a taste of enlightenment. And we tap into it when we enjoy the feeling of open muscles and open hearts after a yoga practice. The more you do the more your experience it until maybe one day it’s all you’ll ever know.