...To Pay Attention...

You've raced against time, through the traffic, across the road, dodging a tram, and into the studio for your regular evening yoga class! The participants who have already set up have a lit candle at the top of each of their mats. As you hurry inside to find your favourite spot in the room, I warmly greet you and hand you a candle to set at the top of your mat. There is a certain quiet compared to the usual social chatter before class, the carefully placed candles around the room cause everyone to set themselves up slowly and with care. The delicate glow of the candle flames require a stillness from us and ask us to pay attention..

I drag my butt out of bed and get ready to teach my fourth 6am yoga class in a row. I'm relying on a coffee hit for this one! With my keep cup full of coffee, and my head full of thoughts of resistance, I begin the early morning drive to the studio. The horizon catches my sleep filled eyes, an array of orange and pink clouds lit up by the rising sun spread across the vast sky. The beauty of the moment brings a stillness over me and asks me to pay attention...

What we all seek are these moments that make us feel deeply alive and truly connected. The art of living a meaningful and significant life is to continue to pay attention.

In a world where our attention is always being pulled... where we are asked to attend to many things at the same time... where we are so overly connected yet somehow often feel deeply disconnected..
It is important for us to pay attention... It is important for us to be awake to our own lives.

It's these still and quiet moments, like the focus of the candle or the majesty of the sunrise, that cut through all the complications and remind us of the beauty of existence. The heart begins to open, the mind relaxes, we feel how vital life can be, and we are reminded that to be alive right now is actually a sacred event. 

It takes a constant remembering to bring this forward into the way we live day-to-day. A constant remembering to continue paying attention throughout the mundane and ordinary moments of life. A constant remembering to continue paying attention throughout life's challenges.
It is during the day-to-day ordinary, as well as the difficult times that life is actually demanding we pay attention.

So, can we take our practice of paying attention off our rubber mats and into life? 
Can we tune into the silent and quiet spaces that reside within us, and re-inhabit our existence in a way that feels true?
Are we able to act from a deep and balanced perspective in the face of great challenge?
Can we apply the heart expanding view of a perfect sunrise to the rest of life and appreciate the great miracle in the ordinary?