This past weekend I attended Bhakti Fest in Madison, WI. The event was a mix of yoga classes, workshops and music. It was my first yoga festival that I went to and it was a great experience.
There were a few things that I have been thinking about since I left which have me thinking about the idea that “you are exactly where you are supposed to be.”
Here are some of the things I heard this weekend:
1. There are no boundaries.
In one of the yoga classes, the instructor told us to approach going into the yoga pose not with the idea of trying to stretch into it as far as we could but to think of it as though there was no boundary. Nothing was there that would keep you back.
2. Your boat is going exactly where it needs to go.
In another class, the instructor led us through a story/guided meditation where we imagined we were laying in a boat and drifting at sea.. He shared the story of some monks who lived in Ireland called the Peregrini in the fifth and sixth centuries who left the monasteries and got into a small boat off the shores of Ireland. The boat had no rudder and no oars. They put up a sail and trusted that the winds would take them where they were supposed to go.
3. Where are you rushing off to? All there is in the end is a hole in the ground.
In a aromatherapy yin yoga workshop where you hold poses for a long time, the teacher reminded us that we all end at the same spot in the end, so why focus on the getting there so much instead of where you are.
Right now we are driving back home, and I have to admit that I am thinking about my broken computer, our ride and navigation home but maybe with a little less focus on what I can’t control at this moment. Ultimately I know that my boat is headed where it is supposed to go.
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