Put it Down

A Mission Moment Share from Humble Haven’s Founder, Suzanne Burns

Have you felt a sense of overwhelm at all recently? Do you ever feel like you don’t know where to act, what to focus on, or that you’re simply spinning your wheels OR that your wheels aren’t turning at all? 

I’ve been there. I was there earlier today actually.

Between doctors appointments, work deadlines, meetings, practices, and the ever drifting thought of…”I HAVE got to call (enter that person’s name who I’ve been meaning to call for the past 3 months)”...there’s a lot to focus on. And, that’s just inside my own intimate and personal bubble. There’s also war and famine and the ‘where the *uck do I live?’ question that pops up each and every time I engage in the national or world news. 

Over the years, I've been guilty of saying the phrase – there’s not enough namaste in the world…What I mean by my usurped use of ‘namaste’ is essentially…what life tools do you turn to when your toolbox is literally or metaphorically empty? 

And while I’m still young (in my opinion) in my knowledge about life, the answer is, look at the tools you have more intently and deeper.  No shock here, but my “tool” for navigating life is yoga and yoga teaches us more about releasing than it does anything else…

Let the exhales be longer than the inhales 

Focus on the nothingness

We are more space than matter 

Let go 

…These are only a few of the examples that have been passed on to me by my teachers and my teachers’ teachers who are much further down the path than me in life and living a yogic path.

What I've inherited from these teachings and my own experience is that both life and yoga require us to put things down from time to time. We simply can not walk through life and all that it hands us and expect ourselves to carry every single thing we’ve ever been dealt all at once. 

I’m reminded of the fact that I have a child with a complex, and mostly invisible, medical diagnosis. There are time periods when that fact has to be carried; for example, when we’re in that time of year when routine medical appointments are completed. Or, perhaps,  a new and “abnormal” behavior pops up that can’t be taken lightly due to their diagnosis. But, on most days and in most moments, I do not have to carry it at the forefront of my mind. This has required practice. Yoga practice, a practice of putting things down.

No boss, mentor, coach, yoga teacher, friend or family member can tell you with 100% accuracy what to carry and what to put down to keep you moving through life – that’s up to you. 
My sincere hope is that every person has a practice or relationship in their life that offers self reflection and not just a reflection of the outermost layer of ourselves, but rather a reflection of who we are at a soulful level. Mine is yoga and it reminds me time and time again that if my life toolbox seems empty, if I don’t know how to be, act, or focus, I just need to put something down and look more closely.