Change
The month of March blows in with a feeling of change in the air. With it we know that spring is just around the corner. Days begin lengthening and early darkness slowly gives way to long, sunny evenings. Although it’s subtle here in the Bay Area, temperatures begin to rise. But, watch out—just when you think spring has arrived, a cold, rainy spell can hit. Suddenly it can feel as though winter has descended upon the region again. Simultaneously full of promise and disappointment, March is an appropriate month to name “change” as Being Yoga’s theme of the month. Like the month of March, life itself is full of change and, luckily, we yoga practitioners are well prepared to weather its highs and lows.
“The only sure thing in life is change.” Who can deny the truth of this cliché? And yet, change is often met with resentment or even fear. Most of us resist change, and we futilely fight to keep things “as they are.” How much better off we would be to accept change and learn to move with it instead of against it. As the Buddhist chant goes: “All things in this world are impermanent. They have the nature to rise and pass away. To be in harmony with this truth brings true happiness.” With our yoga practice, we yogis begin to understand this concept. Each day that we practice, we experience the changes going on in our bodies—we experience old and new sensations, the rise and fall of energy levels, the days of feeling stiff and inflexible and the days of feeling supple and limber. We learn to accept whatever our body offers us and work with whatever gift that is. We also learn that even though we rarely can control what is going on around us, we can accept “what is” by breathing and staying centered and letting go of expectations about how it “should be.” We learn that just when we think we can’t hold a posture one more second, the teacher says, “change.” We learn to take this understanding outside the yoga studio and practice being flexible with the change around us. We are learning to walk out into a blustery March day and find happiness in the blue or the gray skies overhead.