Slow Down

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. ~ Moliere

  

Exhale.

Pause.

Exhale again. 

Do you feel what’s left?

Are we in such a rush these days that we only do things “just enough”, even down to our breath, leaving behind toxins and tension instead of fully releasing and surrendering?

Watching videos of 30 minute yoga sequences compressed to fit on Instagram feels jarring to me. Yes the flow is exotic, the bodies are beautiful, the postures challenging, but something key is missing.

The long nourishing inhale; the sweet slow exhale.

Do these key elements of the practice just take too long for social media to bear? I wonder how this rush, the need for faster, quicker, better, in the information superhighway that takes up more and more of our “leisure time” is impacting our reality...

In an age of 15 second videos and 144 characters have we forgotten how to completely let go?

I am not downplaying social media at all, I love to keep up with distant friends and family via Facebook, to gain inspiration from other yogis on Instagram, heck I even blog once in a while. What I need to know is that the practice isn't becoming a means to a cool 'selfie', that the ever increasing group of athletic awesome yogis is using it to move toward balance, and not just toward the next arm balance.

I see it more and more in class, some sort of staccato march from one posture to the next. Witnessing students muscle in and out as quickly as possible as though it were a check list they had to complete. It’s time to refocus on the stillness, externally and internally. To relish in the realization that within stillness so much is changing and growing; physically yes, but importantly mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Put simply, I’d rather see 15 seconds of a simple transition from Warrior I to Warrior II, with breath, with control, than a compressed 30 minute practice showing off your most complex transitions. That’s not to say don’t show me your 30 minutes, just know that I’m okay watching it in real-time, I’m okay spending 30 minutes learning from you.

I want to see you go slow, take your time, lavish in the detail of what you’re doing and most of all, breathe.