be in the moment

Be in the moment.

Be present.

I hear these phrases all the time but until this week I didn't really understand what they mean. Perhaps this is further evidence that I am slow and that no one has ever bothered to tell me. Or perhaps no one has ever illustrated what Be in the moment means in a way that I really get.

Yoga instructors are huge fans of telling their yogis to be in the moment. In that context, I totally get it. It's really hard to maintain your balance in a new pose or hold a really challenging pose when your mind is wandering. If my mind wanders, I lose focus and inevitably I end up doing a face plant or giving up too soon. If I breathe into the moment and focus on nothing else but my breath and my body I can hold the pose. I've started to really think about what it means to take yoga "off the mat" and into how I am in real life. I love yoga as a workout and I love how calm I feel after a good class but I want something more. Yoga has so many lessons to teach and I don't want for them to go in one ear and out the other but to really incorporate them into who I am.

My Tuesday yoga instructor always starts off class with a little story. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's serious, sometimes I think he makes it up on the fly but all of his stories have an underlying message. It was really hot and humid on Tuesday and K told us that he used to really hate summer and would spend every day getting grumpy about the hot weather and looking forward to fall and winter. By doing this K realized he was missing out on 100 days of his life, year after year. 100 days of only focusing on getting to fall. Only by being present and appreciating each day for what it was, and not constantly pine for something that he can't change and that's so far away, did he grow to love summer.

I was kind of blown away by this story. We're all guilty of thinking too far ahead. Who doesn't start thinking about the weekend on Monday morning? Or who can't wait for your vacation to start in 6 weeks? Who hasn't counted the days until their last day of work before changing jobs? I am just as guilty as all of you. I like to have things to look forward to and I think it's healthy and normal to look forward to things, but not at the sacrifice of the hear and now.

I am exactly half-way through business school (um, YAY!!!!!!). I cannot wait until May 2012 when I finish my last class and graduate. May 2012 is still a very very long way away. I have 8 classes to get through before this, about a million papers, exams and readings. It's not going to do any good to start counting the days and if there is any joy in this whole adventure I am going to miss it if I constantly pine for the end. And 10 1/2 months is a significant part of my life to waste. So I'm going to try to be more mindful and be more in the moment this year. When the professor hands out the syllabus I am going to try not to freak out about all of the due dates; I'm going to try to take things as they come and Be in the moment.