Wow, it's been three months since my last post...and I guess that long since I've felt really inspired. Periods of dormant creativity can be difficult, and those are good times to take a vacation! I'm just back from a week in the Bahamas and it was a great week, but it's showing me just how difficult transitions can be. As happy as I was to be on a beautiful, sunny beach in the middle of winter, I had a hard time getting into the flow. I was by myself and two days after I got there I even thought that I wanted to leave! I didn't see how I was going to start meeting people and having a good time, even though I was trying. But as I taught a Yoga class one afternoon, I heard myself telling the group that Yoga is less about effort and doing and more about allowing -- it's very much about getting out of the way and letting the flow happen. Maybe I was telling myself as well because the next day I managed to let go of all ideas of what I thought should be happening and just "was" -- and it all started to happen. I began to have a great time and even though there were some valleys, even they seemed like a natural part of the process. Now I'm having an equally hard time transitioning back into "reality," and I need to remind myself that it's all part of the process. I think that's an important and perhaps often overlooked understanding of what Yoga is really all about -- tuning into the flow of the universe that is always there and not resisting it. Challenges are inevitable -- just like tight spots in the body or seemingly impossible poses -- but the key is to keep relaxing and allowing whatever is ready to come through to actually come through.

Now, to maintain this mindset outside of the vacation! :-)