Are you busy?! Tame your internal busy-ness with Yoga...

Are you busy??!
Lean in for a moment…

During an interview with the Dalai Lama a reporter once asked, “How do you fit in daily meditation with your busy schedule?” In a cheeky sort of (teacher-ey) reply the Dalai Lama said that on a normal day he would meditate for one hour… but on extremely busy days he would meditate for two…

And of course, he served this up with an infamous playful smile.

Because we all can relate that being busy is such an easy excuse for not doing the things that are the very best for us. It doesn’t matter if you are a student, working part-time or full-time, a parent or other caregiver, or just a human having a human experience… busyness has a way of finding each of us.

Actually it could be said that busyness is an essential human state.

It isn’t only ‘bad’ to be busy. We are hard-wired for action; for doing. We come from the factory with awesome brains (good at being busy), around 600 muscles (good at being busy) and the capacity to be talented at so many different things (yes, you have so many skills!).

So amongst all that busy-ness there is a question to consider:
What would be good for you to prioritize (even just a little!)?

Showing up on the yoga mat is hard work. Because there will always be more laundry, additional dishes, an email to respond to, an assignment or task to complete and so much more. And the more external busyness happening in life (those tasks) usually the more internal busyness in the mind. While we can manage the external busyness, internal busyness tends to manage us.

Yoga slows the internal busyness. Which actually tends to give us back more space for everything else that needs to be done. None of us need to take on the life of a Buddhist Monk… but even in our normal ‘householder’ lives we can keep showing up for the inner stillness.

It isn’t about perfection, it is about staying with it even when things get busy.

See you on the mat soon.

Try it: Does internal busyness have a grip on you? Next time you are feeling caught up in busy thoughts use this balancing trick to refocus your attention towards your body and out of the mind. It's simple. Just stand on one leg and close your eyes. See how long you can balance without using vision as a resource. Science suggests that an adult (aged 40 - 49) should be able to hold onto balance for about 13 seconds with their eyes closed. That is 13 seconds (more or less) to make the brain work on a singular task.