Today’s theme comes courtesy of the theme from this morning’s yoga…
You know when you buy something or learn something new – suddenly – everywhere you turn, that thing seems to follow you or you spot it? Like when you buy a new car, and you then start spotting the same make, model and colour everywhere you go… Or you learn a new word, and then start hearing everyone using it. It’s called the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon for those that like to know these things (me!).
It’s thought to involve two cognitive processes – selective attention and confirmation bias. Well that’s been happening to me a lot recently – and I know it’s more than just coincidence.
There have been a couple of words that have appeared on repeat for me this week – Surrender and Space – in conversations and podcasts, and finally this morning in yoga.
Our yoga teacher shared this morning that the moon has today moved into Sagittarius, which is when emotions lean more towards freedom, optimism, curiosity, truth-seeking, and seeing the bigger picture. And Sagittarius is traditionally associated with expansion, exploration, and philosophy.
So today’s yoga theme was about expansion and space…
Space to be still. Space to open the body. Space to let go or surrender to the moment.
The concept of ‘Surrender’ is also something that I’ve been thinking about this week while I’ve been listening to Michael Singer’s Untethered Wisdom (which I wrote about last week). He describes surrendering as acceptance but on a deeper level… truly letting go and embracing whatever is in front of us.
And this definitely feels like something I need to embody more of… I like to be in control, of my emotions, my actions, my to-do list, my time, etc. I’m sure this resonates for many. The thing I’m coming to learn about this – is that we simply can’t control life. And the more we resist this, the more tension we will come up against. When we are fixated on controlling the outcome, we are more rigid and less agile. Which brings to mind the phrase – “If it doesn’t bend it will break”. We create tension inside of us when we want/need to control things, and only we have control over what we do with that tension (haha, there it is again, control!). Do we want that tension and resistance to build inside of us or do we want to surrender and let it pass through – not like a doormat – but more like bamboo, rather than oak. Something that’s going to bend and adapt, rather than stay rigid and risk breaking.
This really feels in line with my value of “Freedom” which feels very relevant to this blog. Freedom has felt intuitively right for me, but I’m not sure that I really knew why or what it really meant to me… or perhaps it’s significance has changed. Either way, what I think it means now is having the space to expand and to surrender.
When we are busy day-to-day, jumping from meeting to meeting, ticking off the tasks from our to-do list, doing the chores, doing doing doing… we are not being. We don’t have the space to simply be. To expand our thinking, to expand our horizons and possibilities. That’s when we feel more connected to ourselves and our sense of purpose.
This is the space I’m interested in exploring more. What would happen if I allowed myself time not to be doing so much – in the way that I have been most of my life – but time and space to simply surrender and be… be still. That’s what I think I crave most right now.
What would you like more space for? (I nearly wrote: What would you like more space to do?!)
Right, I’m off to do as little as possible for the rest of the day!
Happy Friday x
Not The Mayo Clinic 
