Don't Look

Like many people, my fitness routine turned to YouTube videos when the pandemic made taking classes impossible. I’ve found a yoga teacher I like in the vast assortment of videos, and she never fails to surprise me with new perspectives, not just about yoga but about life and the world.

Once when we were transitioning into another pose by stepping one foot back, she said, “Don’t look at the floor. You know it’s there.” Her comment made me think about other ordinary things that I know are there: the sunrise, the sunset, the seasons, the mountains and their wildlife, the tail wags from my dogs. I am not making any of these things happen, yet I am enjoying them. Too often we think that everything relies on us doing, doing, doing.

For me, it’s good to know that I can trust the sun to rise and set, the seasons to change, the mountains and wildlife to be their most remarkable, and the dogs’ tails to wag without requiring me to do anything other than observe and appreciate. And if I forget to observe and appreciate, those constants will keep on being themselves. Just like in my yoga practice, I don’t have to “look” or do anything but step one foot back and trust that the ground will be there to steady me.

Photo courtesy of Kuhlens Photography