Guest post from Wendy Heathers, Yoga Instructor at Capitol Hill’s 3 Limbs Yoga Studio
Meditative moments for bringing joy and resetting full awareness into our day are hidden everywhere — even while stuck in traffic next to Northgate Mall.
With a little meditation practice you can follow here, even a 25-minute wait beside a monument to capitalist American culture can turn into an East-meets-West nirvana.
First, we must center ourselves by putting down our cell phones and sweets. Take a deep breath— wait, wait! You had the air on recirculate with the windows all the way up so you weren’t deeply inhaling stagnant exhaust fumes straight into your lungs, right? Okay. In. Out. Nice.
Acknowledge any stressful thoughts as clouds passing by — the kind that you can really see moving by, not the ones that hover over the Pacific Northwest like one massive gray cover of darkness for indeterminate stretches of time that overlap with your seasonal depression. No not those. Breathe. In. Out. Nice.
Ah! Here’s that first thought we must let float by with no emotional attachment or reaction: “Why did I move to Mountlake Terrace? Why? To save $100 a month on rent so that I could dump it on gas that’s being burned into the atmosphere every time I go to work, see friends or do any activity worth participating in? Sure! That made sense.” Okay, and let it pass. Breath. In. Out. Nice.
You’re doing great and you’ve finally inched past the Northgate Mall exit. Breathe. In — oh shit, weren’t you supposed to get that adapter thing at Target or Best Buy? It’s fine. It’s fine. You can totally get off at the next exit and loop back. It’s fine. Breathe. In. Out.
What ho! Is that a 1988 burgundy Buick in front of us? What a blessed opportunity to help us stay in the present. Take in every detail of it’s natural decaying beauty as you continue to breath. In. Out. Nice.
You’ve got it. Just keep on breathing as you let thoughts pass on by and admire the beauty you find inside and outside yourself at this very moment. In. Out. Out! All the way out! Leave it all behind! Free yourself! Run! Baby, you were born to run!
Nah-ahahah-mah-ahahaste.
