I am finally starting to see posts on Facebook that echo what I’ve been saying to the people around me, and I’m glad I’m seeing this approaching swell of sentiment: Enough!
There’s so much chatter, so much documenting, so many self-projections, so much self-marketing. I call it ‘looking at life with an exclamation point attached.’
Some is good, too much is too much.
Yoga is defined in the second Yoga Sutra as the stillness of activity in the senses-processing mind — the citta, and yet there is a constant creation of sense stimulation flowing from yogis, artists of every media, cooks, tech nerds, cat lovers. That is to say, from everyone.
This would all be great except that, as the next couple Yoga Sutras discuss, all this chatter confuses us about who we are.
How to Sshhhhhh…
Here’s a simple practice for you (simple in theory; you’ll see how simple to hold to):
- Instead of waking up and posting everything you would normally post, spend some time in silence (3-18 minutes).
- After spending time in silence without thinking about anything, point your clear head toward your work.
- Share what is important to share by posting it, if it feels like that’s the best way to share it.
- Every hour or so, take a breath and intend to reconnect with the silence, and let go of the panic to post what’s in front of you or in your head.
- Read more. Study more. Visit people more. Visit places more. Leave your phone off more. Don’t take a picture of things to share more. Be more. And carry that into your living.
No exclamation point.
If you’d like to learn more about how to find the unbound potential in the stillness, join Peter and Wendy at the ISHTA Bridge program June 26-29. See www.thetable-brooklyn.org for more information.
