Week 6:  3/8/2021

True North Alignment in Yoga is about how to align each of your body parts to create the safest pose.  It's the safest alignment for your body.  Since this week safety is a factor, and since my website is all about living in the present moment, I’d like to argue that aligning your body to the present moment creates the safest place for your soul, free from suffering.

True North alignment starts at the feet, the body’s connection to the earth, and works its way toward the skull.  Below are just some of the cues from toe to head.  Place the outside edges of the feet straight ahead at 12:00, not turned out, not turned in.  Interestingly the toes come up off the floor while the ball and heel press firmly to the earth.  Then pull your leg muscles into the bone, and pull your outer shins in as the ascent continues.  Hug your outer hips into centerline.  Pull the pit of the belly up and in toward your spine.  Pull the sides of your body up toward the ears while relaxing the shoulders down.  Squeeze your shoulder blades together, moving them into your body.  Pull your jaw bone straight back toward the back of your skull.  Finally move your whole skull back, and this part cracks me up, away from your phone.

So funny that Warrior One actually works into the script moving away from your phone as a symbol of the common distraction that sometimes keeps people away from the present moment.  Phones make it easy for humans to avoid connecting with themselves.  Before my newfound studies, I didn’t know there was any value in that kind of stillness.  Since I learned the value of the present moment, my behaviors began to change.  Instead of going along with my past habits of a society driven life, I choose to keep my phone tucked away for the purpose of connecting with the universe on occasion.  Even though sometimes I feel uncomfortable, lonely, bored, or some other emotion which makes me want to naturally reach for my phone as a distraction from those rather uncomfortable feelings.  I try to notice the feelings instead, and breathe, always notice the breath.  As a commuter, I would often make calls during my driving time; it was part of my ultimate efficiency plan.  No longer.  Now I keep my phone and thoughts of those people out of reach and focus on the present moment of driving, even when there are people I “should'' call.  There is no doubt that driving without talking on a cell phone is the safest choice.  Most would agree; no statistics needed!

The present moment is also safer than the familiar past.  I am only beginning to learn the dangers of my mind and notice it as separate from me.  I do not have to be limited by the thoughts in my mind.  For decades because of my childhood, those thoughts were critical, and they were all I knew.  Even though they were familiar and repeated every day, I did not realize I could choose whether to  believe or repeat negative thoughts.  I certainly did not realize I was not centered, grounded, and fully connected to the earth.  Begin to study yourself and your patterns, most of which are repeated in continual loops to see where you are falling short of living according to the way that you would like to be living.  You could be stuck living in the past, repeating behaviors and thoughts like in the movie Groundhog Day with James Belushi.  It’s not until you think and feel differently that your life begins to change.  Do your behaviors meet up to your standards?  In which parts of your life could you move away from old ways of thinking and feeling and move toward  grace or gratitude for the abundance in the present moment?

The present moment is definitely safer than our future worries.  Without even realizing it, the rambling worries of my mind have driven me to become fearful over time.  And far from the present moment.  I can find myself worrying about so many different things.  I worry about my sons’ happiness and future. I worry about my personal happiness and future.  I worry about the happiness and future of my marriage.  Are you seeing a trend here?  I can also catch myself worrying about the big issues of the world that I really cannot control.  Global warming, safety of America’s schools, health of humanity merely scratch the surface of the multitude of concerns.  Big issues are not meant to be solved by puny humans worrying about them, and they are certainly not solved faster by the amount of worry we invest in them.  Yet we run around acting as if our limited minds are controlling our entire lives, worrying that we would not have anything that we didn’t struggle for.  The problem is that the worry and the emotional struggles do not actually have a positive impact; in fact, they are more unhealthy than helpful.

As Baron Baptiste proclaims, “You are either now here or nowhere,” impressing the gravity of staying grounded in the present moment. The past does not literally exist except in our minds during the present moment.  Therefore we leave the present moment when we think of the past.  The future has not occurred yet when it’s still the present moment. So thinking about the future also takes us away from the present moment.  The safest place to align yourself at any given time is the present moment, free from all suffering of the human mind, even when circumstances make life difficult.  Stay in the fire and release the troubles of your mind!