Motivation

It is not always easy to find motivation: for your own practice, the home office, getting up early, even more digital meetings, finding meaning and keeping self-discipline, in these corona times. It is so easy to tire of this shared effort. "Standing up for the community" turned out far more challenging than we could have expected. At the same time we have no choice. Now is when it counts, now is when we must act, be careful, set the right priorities and make the right choices.

Just like yoga. Now is when it counts, in every moment! Some days it can be easy, other days it is hard, but yoga is always available as the uniting, stable force in body and mind. It is just a sea of ignorance, restlessness and distraction that gets in the way. That is why it is so easy to be distracted, overwhelmed, exhausted, and simply to give up when life's challenges and endless chaos make themselves felt.

Just as with covid, or the unforeseen in life, we have to get through it. Ideally without more suffering, and hopefully with a little less pain than we have already felt and created. Can we go on with our heads held high and find clarity and strength in something stable? Yoga, at its best, brings stability, strength, clarity and power on every level. The challenge is only this: what do we choose to see, what do we prioritise and what do we focus on when things are really hard?

Hopefully most of us will get through the covid crisis and all our life crises, but what do we experience along the way? Do we become a better version of ourselves, can we refine ourselves, develop and grow as people? Or do we lose ourselves in the process?

Everything we own and have, we will one day lose. It is unavoidable. The most important thing we have is a harmonious mind, an inner balance, a closeness to life in heart, brain and mind that gives clarity and presence. That is so easy to forget in crises. We slack, forget, prioritise wrongly, and without noticing we are standing on the sidelines of life instead of taking part.

So, dear friends, do not lose heart in these difficult times. Things change; everything is in constant movement. We must take care not to lose our own minds! Ask yourself instead: "What do you choose to focus on, what do you prioritise?" Can you look after the small moments here and now? Can you find stability, clarity and joy in small things, close relationships and moments, here and now? There is a lot of strength in that. It is a deeper kind of meaning we easily lose in everything else that grates and distracts. So dare to take hold of the simple things, look after life, yourself, those closest to you and the beautiful society we live in. Here and now.

That is the greatest thing life can teach us. Not so that we become something, fear something or long to be somewhere else, but because we deserve inner clarity, joy and a closeness to life itself. We do not find that in the constant outer distractions, but in the presence of a force that simply is.

That is yoga at its best. But to understand and experience it, we must practise weeding out everything that distracts, and protect what soothes and gives clarity to life here and now. If we manage that, all will be well.

Photo: Nicki Twang.