Freedom within the boundaries of parenting

We all have constraints.  Being a parent we have quite a few that just go with the territory.  Just to name a handful:  Constraints on our time, mobility, the number of hands you have free, the number of hours of sleep, time to connect with your partner, how far your dollar needs to go, physical space available, where you can go, what you can do.

If we really believed happiness depended on having more, certainly we would never have children.  In fact many people are making a choice to not have children because of the real and imagined constraints it would place on their lives.

Turning the mundane into the magical

We practice yoga to feel something.  More open, more connected, more free.

Because this is what we want to feel in every moment, not just in the tiny slice of our life on the yoga mat.

Yoga is a way to know ourselves.  We come to know our body.  Then we know our breath.  Then we have access to our own minds.  In this knowing we get that that flash of the clarity and freedom that is possible.  The dichotomy is that in this knowing we also begin to know all the places where we are not fully open and present.

Sickness and Surrender

Around here our baby, our third child, has her very first head cold.  And it’s a bad one.  She is one dripping, running, snuffling, coughing, feverish, red mess.  I keep thinking how awful it must be for such a tiny baby to be fighting such a big cold.  You know who else it’s pretty awful for?  The parents.  The mama.  Me.

As parents know, it’s no fun having a sick baby.  The main thing that makes it miserable is the worry and the inability to make them get better any faster.  The other thing, as with much of life with a small baby, is sleep deprivation and loss of down time.

On freedom

What are we looking for when we are trying to get all the toys and clothes off the floor?  What are we hoping for when we get to the bottom of the laundry basket?  What are we looking to find when all the dishes are done?  Why are we clearing our calendars so that we can run out and make that yoga class?

It’s freedom.

Have you considered what is driving the reason you are looking to get things Done. Sorted. Finished. Cleared. Put Away. Chances are you are searching for Freedom.

Space.

Openness.

Clarity.

Liberation.

Most parents I know, including myself, have run through that line, “Remember before we had children?  We could do whatever we wanted!”

Yoga’s Eight Step Mindful Parenting Program

It’s all very well to talk about how yoga can help us become better parents for our children but how?  Do we really think that a bunch of yoga poses and a nice relaxing Savasana at the end will turn us into zen parents, oozing loving kindness for our children at every turn?

Well, lucky for us, behind all the yoga classes, the poses, the Namaste’s and Om Shanti’s there is the Yoga Sutras.  Written many thousands of years ago by a guy called Patanjali, it is a Sanskrit treasure trove of aphorisms that explain what yoga is, what it can do for you and how to go about it.  The “how to go about it” part is tucked away deep in the second chapter as a sort of ancient 8-step program to enlightenment, otherwise known as Ashtanga Yoga, or the eight limbs of yoga.