Finding the Joy

Part of the reason I **really** enjoy going to yoga is because I like the life lessons that yoga teaches you.  One of the things that yoga teaches is to be present in the moment.  As a society, we spend so much time looking forward and looking back, but we don't spend enough just being where we are. Things are always messy and chaotic in our house, with the kids and their schedules, the dogs, and my work.  But I know all too well that these moments are fleeting, and that it won't be long until my babies are no longer babies.  They will be grown, and I won't get this moment right now back.  So I try to be present in the moment, and enjoy it, even when my seven year old is trying to tape his sister's mouth shut with electrical tape. :-)

We've been discussing the lines of the Anusara Invocation in our Tuesday night class.  Last week we discussed Ananda, which is a part of the Anusara invocation . . . sat-chit-ananda or, in Sanskrit:

 (You know, just in case you read sanskrit!)

Ananda means JOY.  BLISS.  Yoga is not about being bendy or being able to contort your body in "bendy" ways.  Yoga is about reminding us to find the joy.  Even when sometimes you aren't feeling joyful.  Its hard to feel joyful when you are running late, there is food caked on the floor, and your children are fighting with each other.  But there are reasons to be joyful.  You have somewhere to go where people will miss you if you aren't there.  There's food to eat.  And while they fight, you still know your children love you and each other.

So, in the craziness of life, take a moment.  Pause.  And find the joy in the moment.  Its easy to love your life when everything is going perfectly.  But life is hardly ever REALLY like that.  Its finding the joy and humor in the imperfections and chaos that truly makes life worth living.

I enjoy yoga because otherwise, I would never have realized that all those funny squiggles could teach me so much about about life.