Great Conversations...
Let's not talk about you know what...
Instead, let's celebrate all the wonderful connections and conversations we have and how they help to support and shape our ever-changing and challenging lives...
There are a few great e-newsletters I subscribe to for a dose of inspiration and wisdom. One of my favourites is from a NY based design company called Holstee (do check them out!) Last month they sent an email that was about great conversations.
In the email was a quote from Irish poet, John O'Donohue. I shared it on social media at the time, as it really resonated with me. Here it is again:
“When is the last time that you had a great conversation? A conversation which wasn’t just two intersecting monologues, which is what passes for conversation a lot in this culture. But when had you last a great conversation in which you overheard yourself saying things that you never knew you knew, that you heard yourself receiving from somebody words that absolutely found places within you that you thought you had lost and a sense of an event of a conversation that brought the two of you on to a different plain, and then fourthly, a conversation that continued to sing in your mind for weeks afterwards.”
Over the last couple of years, I've noticed a significant increase in some truly remarkable conversations - many of them with my students and fellow yogis (but with some other close friends too!)
From the brief moments before and after class, to leisurely drives home; over a cup of coffee or meal to a long phone call (not text or messenger chat ) across the other side of country - I've found myself regularly lost in a beautiful labyrinth of shared thoughts and words...
Conversation should touch everything, but should concentrate itself on nothing.
-Oscar Wilde
We talk a little about yoga, and a lot about life. And just like in the quote, we often find ourselves saying things we didn't even know we knew OR hearing things that really hit home and shift something inside us. Those magical ah-ha moments of realisation!
It wasn't until I read that quote that I began to think about just how extraordinary and powerful these conversations were. I am always so immersed in them, and part of them. The quote pulled me out and suddenly I was seeing them from the outside. (And that's the power of words for you...)
It may have something to do with my getting older (and hopefully wiser) or more discerning with my connections but on reflection I can't help but notice that yoga has been the common thread - that thing brings us together and makes these conversations possible in the first place.
I think there's something in the practice of yoga (when done regularly and over a long time) that unlocks an intelligence, clarity and awareness, that reveals our innermost thoughts, beliefs, fears, desires and stories - first to ourselves on the mat, and then to others, through our connections and conversations.
The honesty and flow of these interactions is unlike anything I've experienced. They bring me joy and help guide me on my journey...
In these times of uncertainty, when some of us may have to endure isolation - I think it's great conversation and connection that we need the most!
So remember to reach out and support one another, and join me on the mat to unearth your inner hopes and dreams, and then let them blossom into the sunlight...
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.
- Viktor Frankl
