Take Time to Honor
To honor something or someone, what does that truly mean? When I think of honoring, I feel time slows down, there is a mindful quality in the way we see what is in front of us or ourselves. There is a deep respect and admiration that is present. What if we took more time to actually honor what is present, right here, right now. The magnificent moments and the most difficult, and everything in between.
When I contemplate honoring the life in front of me, I feel this deeper presence take over. I move slower and I feel as if I am more “with” myself and my life. By honoring the life before us and the life moving through us, we take a moment of acknowledgement. Not to sit in it and stay but rather to be with the fullness of the moment because this moment will change too.
Yoga has brought me one of the greatest gifts and that is deeper awareness. An awareness that has led to me being more present with my life, rather than just existing in my life and going through the motions. And because of the greater awareness and presence, I feel deeper. Grief and joy are more pronounced in my body and I feel them differently than I used to. There used to be more resistance to the bad, not allowing myself to be sad or angry, and now, with the deeper attunement with and of myself has led to life being more open to the depths of pain and happiness.
When we take a moment to honor what is present for us, we allow ourselves to be human, to be alive. What a beautiful thing. Respecting ourselves and others creates space for compassion to enter. By taking a moment to “be with”, to honor the life before you, unlocks this sense of awe and wonder. That even in the midst of grief or difficult situations, we can take moments to feel what is coming up for us. Just like we would honor and respect a dear friend’s time, what if we treated our whole life like that? That we respect our time by creating loving boundaries. That we respect and honor our feelings by taking time to do activities that fill up our cup. And that when we are depleted or sad, we honor that too. We don’t push or rush through but we tune into our breath, just like we do on our mats and we take a pause, we fully arrive in the moment and ask ourselves, “how can I honor the life that is right here, right now?”
Take a moment to fully arrive. Place one hand on your heart and one on your belly. Take the deepest breath you have taken all day. Bring your awareness to the sensations of your breath, of your body. Be the witness to what it feels like to be alive.
Breathe that in. Let it land in your heart, in your soul.
May you take moments today, and always, to come into a deeper presence with the life you are living and the life living through you.
And as always, Shar(e)on Lightly.