So how are we just into our second week of official social distancing & not leaving the house unless its essential? All our daily routines have changed, plans are in disarray & we are kind of in a limbo, not sure if this will last 3 weeks or longer. I am loving the extra time now I am not driving so much (or at all!!), & I am working my way gently through my to do list, getting my admin supremely organised & finding pleasure in the new routine of cooking from basics, spending time with my husband & long dog walks.
Although I understand some people are not as lucky as to have a large garden to potter in or cute dogs to walk with. We all have the ability to choose to find the positive or to wallow in the negatives. There are so many free things being offered, from zoo tours to Thursday theatre, from celebrities teaching school subjects to free guitar lessons. See here where I have tried to get many things together in one place 
This has been a time of grief, and like all grief there are many stages that we may pass through. See here for more information. I know myself I have been through the denial…the feeling of being in a film as it all feels a bit unreal. We are aiming to get to the state of acceptance. One where we can acknowledge the weird world we are currently living in, accept it for what it is & thus look for the positives to be found as we move forward.
So what are the positives for you? I have loved that my tendency to jump in feet first meant that we got our online yoga community up and running over 3 weeks ago now! Enough time for me to make constant improvements so we now have a home yoga studio set up that offers both zoom & Facebook live classes. Meaning you can decide to interact or not, be seen or just see me. Allowing us to see familiar faces, check in with our regular yogi friends & also enabling us to get people to class who are geographically too far away to travel there. Online yoga has allowed me to attend a couple of classes a week with my teacher who lives in Malvern so that’s been amazing J I’ve appreciated that I married the right man…being isolated with someone does highlight their positives & their negatives! He’s realised he’s married a mad woman as he now sees me dancing around the house & eating crumble & custard for breakfast!! I appreciate the roof over my head, the beautiful countryside around us & the garden large enough to distract me on warm days & guilt trip me on cold or wet days! I appreciate the shallower things like my fantastic hairdresser Ed who does my permanent hair straightening so I haven’t got frizzy hair to consider when teaching online!! My natural fuzzball doesn’t give the image of a calm yoga teacher but more one of an eighties bad perm!! I appreciate electricity & water as we have lost both at various points during this lockdown! Often it is only when we notice the absence of something or someone that we truly appreciate it or them.
I have really appreciated how much I treasure the contact of my friends, family & the yoga community. I have appreciated where I live, who I have in my word & the kindness of both friends & strangers. There feels to be more of a sense of community in the world. Let’s hope we can retain the positives. Let’s make an effort to appreciate all that we have in the moment & to retain that appreciation & gratitude in the future.
Most of all I have appreciated what my yoga practice has taught me. That many things are a two-way relationship…what I give positively will come back positively. That my yoga practice teaches me to be flexible, not just physically but also in life. It teaches us to adapt. It allows our prana to flow & life’s possibilities to have space to move. When we cannot live and adapt to what our circumstances are then we create our own problems & issues to deal with it. Something we can call Samyoga. Yoga asana (the physical posture work) encourages us to play with adaptability and be more able to play in life. It can teach us to get out of our head & accept ‘what is’. To adapt & to find the space, calm & breath in any shape or situation. Pranayama (the breathing practice) teaches us who we are. It helps us connect to our inner calm, strength & positivity. See here for some tips on Ujjayi breathing.
