So, I went for a walk yesterday afternoon along the beach. Finally a day when I went outside and didn't sweat to death. A jeans and T shirt day...my fave! So I rolled up my jeans, left my flip flops in the car and started to walk, well stomp really. The ocean was pea green with huge waves rolling in and the sky was a deep purple with violet clouds that looked like I was watching time lapse photography. And the water was so warm it was surreal. I don't know if maybe there was a hurricane passing or looming or what, but it was most definitely stormy. It is so hard to keep up with the tropical depressions and upgrades to tropical storms and down grades to tropical waves, I just go by the supermarket. If people are panic buying bottled water and tins of soup, I know to "hunker down" as they say here. Tin of soup or can of soup? I don't know which one I say now. Is one American and one English? Do you know? Do you care?! This language thing drives me mental. Do you know they don't know what a Biro is or OXO cubes! And if I order a deli sandwich and I want lettuce in it, forget it! I have actually had to put on an American accent for "Ledduce" so they could understand what I wanted! No shit!
I was walking into the wind along the beach and it felt amazing. Lots of cobwebs were being dislodged from my brain and being taken out to sea! It invigorated my mind and my body and I was breathing in, filling my lungs with wild, salty, fresh air. Who needs drugs for stimulation when you have nature? After a mile, (I clocked it from 4th Street to 12th in the car) where the beautiful houses stop and the dull, plain fronted boxes of condo's begin, I turned around and with the wind at my back, I rambled back along the sand. And now it felt like a completely different day. The sea was still wildly crashing and the wind was still blowing, so what had happened. It was quiet. Not outside, but inside my head. The gale had ejected all the stress and worry for a moment, and had taken my thoughts to it's strength and beauty. And now with that wind behind me, it was moving me forward, carrying me, calming me. The sky was still dark but there was a small chink of pale blue emerging through the clouds (enough to make a pair of sailors trousers as my Grandma would say!).
Does this sound all too poetic for such a cynical bird like me? It got me thinking about yoga actually. (Here we go with the shameless plug folks!) Seriously, that is what yoga does for you. Often, you come into class with a storm raging in your body or your mind and you feel unsettled and all at sea. Then, as the practice unfolds, you start to calm the waves of emotion and quiet the rushing air and there on that small mat you stand at peace. It is quite an incredible feeling. And it can take a while to actually realise quite what is going on and to be able to put it into words. But that feeling is unlike anything else.
Yoga is a union. A connecting of your body, mind and spirit. A relationship with your inner most self. A love, a breath, a life.
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