Do not disturb 20 minutes

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About 9 months ago, my meditation practice came to a very literal, screeching halt.  In need of a 20 minute vacation again, I decided to turn my bathroom into a meditation space.  When Tim walks in the door at 6pm, I hand Ilsa to him, slap this makeshift sign on my door and sit for 20  minutes.  

The first day, I told Salter and Mary Elle, "don't bother me for 20 minutes."  Very loving, I know.  So a few minutes in, I am turning my senses inward, turning away from the periphery, and I hear the shuffle of tiny feet outside my door.  The little person is very curious about a closed door.  And the budding first grader, I presumed, can almost read the  "DO NOT DISTURB 20 Minutes" sign.  There was a minute of silence as she pondered the sign and the words I told her-but she came in anyway.  She was in my room, on my bed, admiring her newest costume change in the mirror.   

Ahhhhhhh-the point of meditation is that you should be able to do it on a cool, 70 degree day, by a stream with birds chirping, or in 110 degree heat, sitting atop a stinking, rotting pile of garbage.  I made it 8 minutes the first day.  Not so bad.  It's gotten progressively better which is all you can ask.

Mary Elle has been inspired to create her own mini vacation signs as well.  

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Take a 20 Minute Vacation Everyday

Men seek retreats for themselves in country places, on beaches and mountains, and you yourself are wont to long for such retreats, but that is altogether unenlightened when it is possible at any hour you please to find a retreat within yourself.  For nowhere can a man withdraw to a more untroubled quietude than in his own soul.  

-Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, 2nd century AD in his classic Meditations

Namaste BKS Iyengar

Well worn Iyengar texts

10 years ago, during the ISHTA yoga teaching training,  I read my first yoga book, Light on Yoga by B K S Iyengar.  Several years ago I read his later life book Light on Life.  They are both underlined and studied, referred to often for teaching yoga classes.  Today, when I heard of his death at 96, I grabbed Light on Life and turned to this underlined section.  

The practice of asana (yoga postures) clears the inner channels for prana to move freely and uninterruptedly….  Asana and pranayama (yogic breathing) practice removes the partition that segregates body and mind.  Together they dispel darkness and ignorance.  …. Asana breaks the rigidity and hardness of the inner body.  This allows the unrhythmic breath to become rhythmic, deep, slow, and soothing.  Then pranayama clears and soothes the feverish brain, making way for reason and clarity of thought and lifting the mind toward meditation.

The sustained practice of pranayama liberates one from fear, including even the fear of death.  If there is anxiety in the body, the brain contracts.  When the brain relaxes and empties itself, it lets go of its fears and desires.  It dwells neither on the past, nor the future, but inhabits present.  Freedom is about dropping the shackles of fear and desire.  When freedom comes, there is no anxiety, no nervousness.  -Light on Life by Iyengar

Thank you to a life devoted to teaching so many how to be free.  

Namaste