Three. A powerful number. The trinity appears in many traditions, cultures and stories. Stories of how three become one, how there are three considerations, perspectives, pieces of a whole. Boiled down the stories reveal balance.
Balance, noun;
a condition in which different elements are equal or in correct proportions or an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.
Balance, verb;
to keep or put (something) in a steady position so that it does not fall, or offset or compare the value of (one thing) with another.
The definitions indicate something steady and yet when you layer these definitions on this physical posture of triangle there seems to be more.
I just read a book called A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. It really shifted my thinking around the human experience as a time being…a being who marks time.
In triangle posture you begin with wide feet and you can imagine them as marks. The leg and toe at the top of your mat turned out ahead of you is the future. The rear leg and toe behind you, is your past. These frame your life.
Hinging at the hips you lean forward and spread an arm to earth and sky, balancing between past and future in the space of present time. Your arms become the needle pinned to the earth marking where you are in that moment as a time being. I AM HERE.
How does it feel to be right here, right now? It’s hard sometimes. Not in the physical sense. (If it hurts physically you may have gone too far in the pose, or in life.) It’s hard to be in this moment of acceptance.
Really this is it? This is where I am? This is how I feel? I thought it would be different. Better. Easier. More fun. It’s not what I imagined…
There is an illusion with balance. An unfulfilled promise that it’s a condition to aspire to in every moment, as if it’s a short story. But what if it were a novel? With several volumes? There are chapters with only a few characters in the spotlight and someting dramatic happening.
And then the story shifts, reconfigures and steadies. In life nothing is ever equal or in perfect balance for very long. It’s more a collection of moments of shifting sands, millions of slivers of being in time to stretch, heal, mourn and love. These slivers seem to fly by in a whirr, like ingredients in a Vitamix on the highest speed, getting pulverized into a concoction of life that is an unpleasant color.
What if it slowed down? What if the breath could reveal a new awareness of each rich ingredient of your life? What if triangle pose your body reverently marked your life as a time being?
YOU ARE HERE. Now. What if this is the perfect place to be?
Here’s Adriene to help with Triangle.
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Be well, it’s a state of mind.
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