Dear Homegrown Yogis,

The transition from the unstructured time of Summer to the busyness of Fall always seems to catch me off-guard.   Suddenly I look at my calendar and there are parent meetings at school, ballet practices, programming at the studio, and an extremely important unicorn-themed 5th birthday party to plan!

Amidst all the to-do’s on my calendar last week, I remembered that I had also planned to have lunch with friends.   Deciding I was too busy, I started a text to let them know I couldn’t make it.  Mid-text, however, I stopped.  I wish I could say it was because spending time with friends was a priority to me, but I think it was more out of guilt for bailing on them last minute.   I rushed out to lunch half-heartedly and totally frazzled.  Within minutes of sitting down, something hit me – I was exactly where I was supposed to be.  I left that lunch with a sense of energy and grounding I hadn’t felt in weeks.

Driving home, I made a mental list of all those things I had been cancelling on lately.   Some included dinners and phone calls with my friends, but the majority of my cancellations were with myself.  I had stopped going to yoga classes, I had quit reading before going to bed, and my meditation practice was pretty much non-existent.   I guess it’s easier to cancel on myself because I don’t have to send anyone a text about it =)

Martin Luther famously said, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”   In this quote, I believe he is speaking about the importance of his relationship with God, and I also believe he is speaking about something else:   That those times in our lives when we feel as though we are too busy to nourish our souls is the precise time that we need to double-down on our commitment to ourselves.   The night-out with friends, the weekend yoga class, or the journal that’s unopened on the bedside table – maybe it’s when we are too busy for these things that we really need them the most.

As we all enter this busy time of year, I invite you to take note of those things you’ve been canceling on lately.  Just maybe you’ll discover like I did, that they are actually the most important to-do’s on your calendar.

 

With love,

Rachel