If you’ve ever been to a yoga class, the teacher likely offered the idea of setting an intention for your time together. Dedicating the energy create in the next hour, to someone you love and/or needs some support.
I’ve been doing that for many years, “dedicating my practice”. Sometimes it’s an attitude adjustment for myself, or it’s good vibes for my friend ______. Other times it’s just a “may everyone know joy today” kind of dedication.
It’s a nice thing to do at the beginning of a yoga class but I hadn’t thought much of it until recently. Dedicating your practice is actually a powerful statement. It’s an acknowledgement of your own effect on the space, time and energy around you, and the offering of that love and support to another.
“Here, I generated some mojo for you.”
I value this time in my life very much because it is teaching me a lot about the concept of space. Understanding that the choice is not in whether we do or do not take up space… make an impact… but instead the choice is in the nature of the impact itself. The quality of the boom. The intent behind the pow.
You are already here, might as well make yourself useful.
Lately I see how important it is that the space we allow to be occupied in our lives… both physically and mentally/emotionally, be filled with quality, purpose and joy. The people we allow into our lives, and conversely the people whose lives we are in… should be chosen wisely.
And if the joy is gone, they need to go too. In some cases I have spent too much time trying to fit into people’s lives. In others, I have allowed people a parking space in my own heart that should have required a permit.
Turns out every single space in your heart should require a permit.
It matters, that space.
Marie Kondo made this concept a lot more relate-able with her ideas around letting go of physical things that no longer bring you joy. If you’ve ever jettisoned a lot of your stuff at once, I don’t need to tell you that there is an energetic weight to the stuff. You can feel it. We all know that post garage sale glow.
Of course you can see it too… the visual weight. When there isn’t so much clutter, the volume is turned down on everything. It’s visual peace and quiet that you’re experiencing, a certain “newness”. But it’s really just space. Space around the things that bring you joy in life. It’s space that is not taken up by dead weight. Room to breathe. The space to think.
Purposeful dedication. Whether that requires choosing the perfect couch, carving out a meditation space and time, or unsubscribing from all the junk. Mail and people.
When I offer the energy I create, be it for myself, or my friend, or the world at large, that’s a powerful statement. When I choose to dedicate it to you, the “you” I choose should always be a conscious choice. Because what I do matters, and because you matter to me. And we don’t really have time for things that don’t matter, do we?
What you do, and what you say, and the intention (or lack of) with which you live your life… it’s perceptible to others, if even unconsciously. It takes up space. It all matters.
Do you see what you mean?
Took me a second too.
*****
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