Minding the "Mini-Vinyasas of Life"

All of us are better at some part of the vinyasa cycle than others...These days I invite my students to complete classes by invoking the quality of yoga into the very next movements of their lives--how they walk, drive, and speak to people once they leave the studio. I find that if I don't bring attention to the proper "counter-poses" in my daily life, I feel as though the energy of my yoga, of my breath, and of my joy in life starts to drain away. Cultivating completion in the mini-vinyasas of life--writing those thank-you notes, putting things away when you're done with them, taking a moment to savor tea after a meal--allows the present to stay open and expansive instead of cluttered with unfinished business.

-Shiva Rea, "Vinyasa: The Yogic Art of Conscious Evolution" from Embodying the Flow: Vinyasa Flow Yoga Teacher's Intensive Manual

For the first time today, I'm going to be teaching other teachers how to teach yoga in our Level 1 Teacher Training at Tranquil Space Arlington. I'm very excited to begin this new journey and think that I'll learn just as much from the TT1 students (all 23 of them!) as they'll learn from me. As I was preparing for this morning's session last night, I re-read the article "Vinyasa: The Yogic Art of Conscious Evolution" by Shiva Rea, and was very moved by the quote above. As teachers, we spend a lot of time talking about "taking our yoga practice off of the mat and out into the world," which Shiva emphasizes in this article, but I don't think I've ever thought about competing the "mini-vinyasas of life" in the way that she describes. It's so simple and makes so much sense, but I've never drawn the comparison in my own life.

I would never think of finishing a practice or a class without coming into savasana (corpse pose, or final relaxation), so why do I move on from moments in life without savoring them, completing them, or finding closure, so that I can create more space in my mind to relish the present moment? There's nothing I love more than checking things off of my to-do list, and I've always known this to be true, but I've never been able to verbalize why I feel this way, until now. I think Shiva explains the simple beauty of completion perfectly when she says, "cultivating completion in the mini-vinyasas of life...allows the present to stay open and expansive instead of cluttered with unfinished business."  To me, it's oh-so-very important to begin thinking of it in this way in order to transform our thoughts and to remember why we feel complete when we have closure, even for the most mundane daily tasks.

So this week--in a week that feels busier than any other that I've faced this summer--I'm going to work to cultivate completion in the "mini-vinyasas of my life" so that I can be fully present as a teacher, student, friend, girlfriend (er...fiance? still haven't adjusted, hehe!), colleague, daughter, and sister. Honoring each step of our journey, just as we honor each pose in our practice, is a wonderful way to live our lives. Now if I could only remember to do so! Maybe I should add it to my to-do list for the week... ;

May your week be filled with the beautiful mini-vinyasas of life and lots of closure, when necessary :)

Namaste!
Mary Catherine