I Believe Therefore I Am

When you are building a house, you don’t just start off with the foundation. When you are building a house you must first survey the land, you have to understand the soil content, understand what’s under there. Sometimes you must dig down before you can build up. In the Kemetic yoga sequence that I often do, every time you approach your yoga mat, your yoga mat is a reflection of you. It is a reflection of where you are.

Your yoga mat is just a mirror for where you are in life.

If you approach your mat and you find that as you are flowing from posture to posture, and getting more and more frustrated, perhaps there is something in your life right now that you want to move smoother and with ease and it is just not happening as quickly as you would like, or not as effortlessly as you would like. The same thing if you were to approach your mat and you find that your flexibility is not as good as it was the day before and that could be getting in your head space were potentially you may be confined by. Sometimes we’re stuck in a space, and that space is not giving you the greatest flexibility to be yourself, or live your best life, or be as expressive as you want to be. These are just examples.

While doing a grounding practice, what came up were notes of presence. Moving back to my childhood home at the time of writing this, things have changed around the house; my mom and her significant other have a dynamic that I’m not a part of, so I am very aware of that, and their daily flow of life. So the first day back it can be easy to get caught up in the rhythm of other people‘s habits, and I see that from everyone. Even going throughout your day. Sometimes you wake up, you shoot out of bed, and your to do list is 1 million things long, and you just want to get up and get them done. And make them work.

Take a deep breath and relax.

So this particular morning, instead of waking up when the house woke up, and when the dog decided to start moving, I was able to seclude myself in my room and do my rituals and grounding practice first; the notes that came out of this was be present. Because I do have a to do list, this particular day I remember needing to get my nails done, and drop off some clothes at the dry cleaner, and a fitting for my friends fashion show, but instead of rushing to hit those deadlines like I usually do, I used time as a measurement and an aid instead of a master. And this is the flow that I was able to have this morning. It was about being president, even though there are tons of distractions around you (this particular moment my eight-year-old pitbull was getting his muddy paws all over my yoga mat in the backyard, and throwing his dirty tennis ball at my feet trying to get my attention, and running his wet nose into my third eye while I’m in down dog). But the message was still to be present regardless of distractions.

Whatever your intention is for the day or the morning, and even if you don’t set intentions first thing in the morning, this is a great moment to start and try something new. Before you even start your day just have an intention to chat with yourself, “ What do I want to accomplish for today? What is my priority for today, what is my main objective?” No matter what, cast a net

of intention over everything you do. Though our natural reaction may be to get those couple of little things done on our to do list first thing in the morning so we can have the rest of the day to ourselves, instead of beating into your tasks for the day, I understand that the present moment will tell you when the best time is for you to so into these things.

Efficiency does not always equal success. Another lesson for you.

I am a firm believer in work smarter not harder, doing the things to the best of your ability using all the resources you have to get them done, however, sometimes, most often times, doing things at the pace at which they are meant to be done is the success. So even if all the things on your to do list for today do not get done, that does not mean that you were less of a person. Whatever your intention is for the day, if you don’t meet your intention, and do get caught up in the day, and get caught up in the hustle and bustle, it’s OK. Just come back to your intention, you always have the space to come back to your attention. And if you completely forget your intention by the end of the day, so be it! Guess what? Go to sleep, chill out, tomorrow is a brand new day to start a whole new intention, or pick back up where you left off.