Pause Pose
photo courtesy of my 6-year-old daughter:)
How much do I spend my time rewinding in my imagination, to times when my kids were smaller or to my pre-kids life? And then sometimes I fast-forward to when the kids are older and I’ll have more free time, or when I decide to go back to work after being home with the kids for years.
It’s become sort of cliche to advise people to be more present or to ‘live in the now.’ Cliches exist because they hold some truth and value, but that value needs to be addressed specifically. Let’s break it down; exactly how can we be more present?
Well, let me give you a tip that I’ve run into over and over again. As a person who struggles with the motivation to make changes, I’ve realized that in order to go through with something that I think is a great idea, I need to take action (duh, right? But somehow I get caught up with the debate around taking the right action at the right time). Even before we decide what the right action at the right time is, though, we need to pause. Pausing as a habit, rather than a one-time event, is the ultimate yoga lifestyle.
Pausing puts us in ‘the now,’ helps us practice awareness, and offers us the opportunity to cultivate a sense of wonder. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago in this post, and then I didn’t quite pause enough until this moment because I noticed that we are on the eve of the full moon. The last post I made was on the new moon.
The moon teaches me to pause, reflect, take action, mark the passage of time, and appreciate what I’ve been through. The moon has been a guiding light in my life as a woman and yogi.
So I invite you, let’s take a moment together on the brink of this full moon and find what I’d like to call a Pause Pose. Choose a pose that you can easily get into when you realize you’re pushing too hard through your day, or just whenever you can take a moment (say, 30-60 seconds) to slow down and take a breather. Do your Pause Pose at least three times a day and see if it brings a little more balance to your body, mind, and emotions.
For this next moon cycle, my pause pose will be to just simply reach my arms out to the side and stretch my neck, shoulders, wrists, and fingers. As far as I know, there’s no name for this pose. It’s actually more just some simple movements to counteract the positions I put myself in frequently as a mom (breastfeeding, cleaning, playing with kids, and more). It’s not a static pose, but one where I can circle wrists, flex and extend them, circle my neck or just look up or down. It’s a general position with wiggle room.
What would you like to choose as your pause pose these days? Think outside the box, beyond traditional yoga poses. What stretch or position does your body need the most? Please leave a comment — I’d love to hear!