I started to take the weather personally. I mean, this is the first summer teaching SUP yoga and it’s been the coolest and wettest in years.
I teach five days a week so you’d think at least a few would be dry…and they have been, but none have been absolutely sunny and beautiful from sunrise to sunset…none! I’m constantly checking the weather and braving a pop up rain shower or worse.
I’d find myself setting an intention at the beginning of each class for sunshine…or the rain to hold off…or the wind to die down. Eventually, I started wondering what I had done to make Mother Nature so angry…like the weather was a direct result of something I’d done.
I know how ridiculous this sounds but I couldn’t let go of feeling like there was some larger lesson here…and today it hit me.
I’m a planner. I don’t make vacation itineraries or anything like that, but when I have something that I have to do…or that I want to do…I plan for it. And in planning for it, I usually have a couple contingency plans. It’s actually a skill of mine. I can think through a plan and a couple back up plans without much effort. While some people spend countless hours planning and replanning, I can do it in my sleep. It’s part of what made me so successful at my job.
So now here I am…working a different type of job…enjoying an entirely different life…and I’m still planning and replanning on an almost daily basis. Constantly thinking about the weather…worrying about the weather…planning for the weather. Using valuable energy to try and figure out something that even people that go to school for years can’t seem to predict.
The lesson? Let it go. Get out of my head. Stop with all the planning! A yoga practice can be just as lovely in the rain as in the sunshine. I’m a talented enough teacher that I can adjust on the fly. Students will come or they won’t…but since I can’t control the weather, I should stop trying.
And stepping back just a bit further…I need let loose of the reigns a bit more. Life isn’t meant to be controlled. It’s meant to be experienced…to be lived…to be a bit messy. The growth comes when things don’t go my way. When I’m thrown an unexpected curve ball. When someone does something I’m not anticipating. That’s when I learn the most about myself…about them…about life.
Realizing this is my lesson is step one. Next, I have to put it to practice. And it’s called a practice for a reason. This isn’t something that I’m going to be able to do overnight…there’s years of programming to unprogram. But I can become more aware…more mindful…more perceptive. I can ask myself if I’m going with the flow or trying to control the current.
Funny how I’ve been teaching my SUP students about the feminine energy and learning to go with the flow…and here I’ve been wound up in mission control mode over the weather. I guess that’s irony…or stupidity. Although, I’ll call it a victory because I managed to figure this lesson out before someone (ahem, Mr. Universe) decided to tell me about it.
Here’s to letting go….