Towards the end of 2013, I signed up at my work’s onsite gym. It took me almost two years to take this big step. In my mind, I have this aversion to gym culture. I have changed my mind since then. Surprisingly, all my reservations vanished. Gym junkies went about their programs quietly, hardly chatting to each other, apart from obvious gym buddies. More importantly, gym membership can be salary sacrificed (read: pay before taxes). Happy Days!
A beloved workmate, let’s call her Venus, invited me to attend a weekly Yoga class. Up to that point, yoga classes had no appeal to me. I didn’t think I would enjoy the… stillness. If you know me, I simply don’t do stillness well. I crave motion and movement. But like I always say, try things at least once. So I tried. And I have been attending Yoga classes every single week since then.
One of the biggest pull for me is Tania. Tania always begins our 45 minute sessions with a story, a life lesson, that hits a very sweet spot in me, every time! Her soothing and calm manner draws me in and onto peaceful la-la-land…This Valentine’s Week, Tania shares her thoughts about L.O.V.E.
In the next lines, I will paraphrase last Tuesday’s yoga lesson session.
“Soften your gaze.
Lengthen into your fingertips.
Strengthen your belly button into your core.
Stretch to your scalp.
Lift into the heavens.
Hold that position and smile.
Inhale to your right.
Exhale to your left.
Lower into your lunge.
Straight into warrior pose.
Relax your shoulders.
Drop into downward facing dog.
Melt into child’s pose…”
Most of what Tania says boggles my mind. Especially the one about softening my gaze! I keep smiling inside…down to my liver.
“Today’s lesson. Is about LOVE. As we grow older, we move away from romantic love and into familiar love. The comfortable kind of love…
But what is it that we love in the other person?
Isn’t it that part of them that mirrors us?
We love that part or parts of them that connects to and with us?
But what if we take that away? Will you love them less?
Do we love how the other person talks to us, writes to us, responds to us, do things for us? Do we love how they make us feel?
But what if we take all that away?
Because that, ladies and gentlemen, requires effort and energy and personality and character…
Strip that away and what is left?
Is it a scared, vulnerable, and lonely person?
And will you love that person less or even not at all?
Find that unconditional Love. A love that does not require anything! It’s not what they do, but what they are! Love their very being! That’s the self-less, unconditional kind of LOVE.”
The End.
I thank you for reading, my loves!