My sweet peas are a real delight at the moment - if only I hadn't planted them behind a tree in our garden then we may be able to appreciate them a little more! Not that we ever seem to spend much time in the garden much these days, the beach is just too big a draw and we have been enjoying swimming and lying on the pebbles at Petit Bot!
I have to admit that working in an office is a challenge for me, but I also appreciate that challenging ourselves is a good thing, otherwise how do we ever hope to grow and develop as people if we are always comfortable and yet perhaps limited in our comfort zone. Regardless, getting down to the beach, into the fresh air and connecting with the earth has become a necessity.
Reading one of the "A Year of Living Your Yoga" quotations recently really made me reflect:-
"Whatever I spend my time doing is what I am committed to in my life. Notice what you spend your time doing. That is what you are truly committed to. Are you happy with this commitment? Ask yourself, "what needs to change and what merits celebration about how I spend my time each day".
It really made me think about how I spend my time and really question whether the time I spend on facebook and sending emails is really such a positive commitment in my life. I often justify it as "work", but really, wouldn't it be better to spend that time working on my relationship with others, seeing friends and family in the flesh, helping my Mum in the greenhouse and doing the things I love, like reading and writing.
So I have made a conscious effort to email and use facebook less. It is liberating, giving myself permission to do something else instead. I have read a book and I have been far more helpful in the greenhouse. I also enjoyed catching up with friends and family over the weekend, got to love the opportunity at this time of year.
It makes me think how often we spend our time doing stuff we don't need to be doing, but become attached to doing, and the things we don't do instead...I guess it is a process of decluttering our lives.
Thank you to Hayley and Mike for a fabulous get together on Saturday night, it was so enjoyable to spend time with like minded friends and enjoy a vegetarian pot luck feast - the evening went so quickly and it was 1am before I even realised!
Thank you also to Sally for a lovely few hours on Sunday afternoon sitting in her lovely garden and chatting to Mike and Hayley and other friends.
It is a challenge changing one's routine, but I guess this is the benefit of Yoga - encouraging us to live in the present and approach life with a degree of flexibility and appreciate that nothing is forever...everything is transitory, and that if we are rigid in our thoughts, then life will not be so easy going.
You only have to watch nature to know this is true...would be awfully strange if the trees decided to shed their trees and get so used to being without that they never allowed them to grow again, or the flowers decided that they couldn't be bothered to blossom this year...but everything ebbs and flows, compresses and grows, going with the flow.
And the summer really does encourage us to go with the flow, all routine is out of the window, especially with this unpredictable weather!! Of course I believe this can only be a positive thing, as gets us to consider what we are really committed to!!
Enjoy the sunshine.
xx
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