Life's epic poetry

Smile with your eyes.

Not your face. Not your muscles. Not your gestures.

Smile with your eyes.

All photos by Jason Di-Candilo

Let them sparkle. Let them twinkle. Let them illuminate all you have inside.

Inside, there are stories. Memories. Messages. Words all strung together.

Some are achingly beautiful.

Others are dense; heavy with pain and disappointment.

You can feel the story within your body. The slight pang in your lower back, the tightness in your neck, the stiffness in your shoulders.

When you sit in silence, you can hear the story loud and clear, playing on circuit. 

It clouds your sight; it blocks your vision. It sends you down a spiral of doubt and confusion.

This is life’s epic poetry.

This is the tango of your ego and your soul. One steps forward with gusto and sway; the other leans in with quiet grace and shelves its partner off to the side.

This is where you have a choice. You can choose to be an unconscious slave to your habitual tendencies – to the reoccurring stories of your mind – or - you can choose be a conscious servant to your highest possibilities (Elena Brower, yogini and author of Art of Attention).

With your chin up, and your best foot forward, you choose what feels right.

You choose to de-armour your mind and your body and to consciously flow through a series of postures. Folding and bending and twisting and reaching and opening.

Your body is awake. It is alert. Your thinking becomes light and intuitive. Your insides begin to shift.

There is transformation. A balance of acceptance and regained control. An air of honour wraps you in its grip.

You breathe it all in and love it all out. The pendulum no longer wavers. The stories no longer exist.

Instead, you free fall into the truth.

You realise you are not the stories of your mind. That you are rather the creator of your life story.

That you hold the pen that scribbles the words and intentions on the script.

That you are the artist that mixes and decisively selects the colours to paint the canvas.

That you are the pilot steering the plane in the direction you choose.

This is when you smile with your eyes.

This is when you let them sparkle, let them twinkle, let them illuminate all you have inside.

My journey with yoga has been just that: The unlocking of the stories and the tales. It has provided me with the tools to sharpen my awareness and to recognise when the story is taking the lead, instead of me. My practice has grown over time. Fear and frustration use to hold me in its grip as I attempted to go a little deeper or extend a little higher than the girl on the mat next to me. Competition and comparison were vying for my attention. I remember being distracted by the days events, lost in the murmurs of my thoughts. Now, my practice is all about the rhythm of my breath and cultivating a deep awareness of the present moment. My mind still swings on that pendulum, but the difference is my ability to choose when the swinging stops. Yoga is not something I feel I should do. Every day my body and mind yearns to rest, reflect and reconnect through gracious movement, conscious breathing and sitting in stillness. 

This is when the real story unfolds. This is when life's epic poetry is revealed.

Time to hear from you: Does yoga help to unlock your stories? Share your journey, what you have learnt and how yoga has benefited you. Type away in the comment box below :)

If you would like to learn more about the classes I teach, visit here.