After every ending there's a new beginning

A yoga practice is a cycle.

It starts quiet. You settle in, you move slowly, you let the breath find its own pace. Then it builds. The poses get more active and more complex until you reach the peak of the practice. Then it comes back down. Slower shapes, closer to the floor, less and less to do, until you are lying still on your back in Savasana, corpse pose.

In my classes after Savasana I often bring everyone onto their side into fetal pose, then up to a seat to finish the class. Fetal pose after corpse pose reminds us that after every ending there's a new beginning.

A day follows the same cycle. You wake up, you move and you breathe, the day builds and comes down again, and you go back to sleep. The next morning you start over.

So does life. You arrive. You move slowly at first, you build, you peak, you get old, you die. And regardless of what your beliefs are, we do change from one thing into another. Energy isn't created and it isn't destroyed, it only changes form. That's the law of conservation of energy. A wave doesn't go away when it breaks, it goes back to being the sea.

Yoga doesn't finish when you roll up your mat and walk away. Take what you practice off the mat with you. Breathe through the hard parts. Let go of what you think life should look like. Stay in the present and move at your own pace. Don't compare yourself to the person next to you. Rest before you think you've earned it. Come back when you drift. And don't take any of it too seriously, because it will eventually end.

The month is nearly over. Admittedly there were mornings I didn't want to get on the mat. Now it's ending and I'm sad about it. BUT, It has to end for something else to start.

If you missed it, the whole month is on YouTube.

Thank you for practising with me this month.

May your thoughts be kind, may your words be caring, and may your heart be filled with love and gratitude.