It was Saturday morning, a text popped in from my nephew Jamie… He and his fiancé Bethany (my niece in law!) were back in London after Locking down in Lyme Regis…
‘Perhaps we would we like to meet up in a park to do some training…?’
‘That would be great…’ I replied.
Every Monday morning Anadi and I run a longer loop route to Battersea Park, where we perform a circuit session – designed by me!
I suggested that they may like to join in with that?
The plan was formed… Executed for the past three weeks with perfect precision!
At 7am on the dot I hold a live Chakra Chant meditation in my ‘Conversations with a Bodhisattva group’, this is finished by 20 past…
And Anadi and ready ourselves to run; out of the door by 7.30am – up the Kings road we jog, passing Bethany en route as she walks in the opposite direction from the station – coffee in hand – on her own path to the park….
Jamie waiting for us outside Sloane square tube station joins in, we hardly miss a step (except for a hello hug!) and the three of us run to Battersea Park via Chelsea Bridge… We make our way round the outer circuit, arriving at a grassy expanse where we join up again with Bethany – sitting waiting for us on our ‘training benches‘ ready for action!
Our little training group applies itself with fun discipline, and after thirty five minutes or so we emerge the other side of our circuit…
Today we had an extra member of the group – Karolina – she arrived in London two weeks ago and was finding her bearings barefoot in Battersea Park, she came over to us and asked if we were an organised training group – I said we weren’t; but that of course she could join in if she wanted…
And so we were five…
After training it is handstand practise!
Jamie who represents Great Britain in acrobatic gymnastics, and Bethany also possessing amazing acrobatic abilities, means that we have manifested within our magic Monday a tip top coaching team
And our handstands are improving – very noticeably!
Once again I have been shown the wisdom that to do something better often requires moving away from the way that feels more comfortable and familiar – and stretching to do something different and therefore rather uncomfortable…
But, by pointing my toes, straightening my legs and my arms, as I go to into the take off – or is it a take up? The improvement once I actually did those things ( instead of slipping back into habitual ways) was almost immediate; and it felt so different…
Balletic straight light….
At first I kept reverting to my old way, the body programmed into what felt doable…
But with repetition and practise the stretch has opened everything out – and suddenly I felt like I flew into a different space; a timeless, upside down world…
Our tried and tested ways – our programming – so often feel so comfortable that even if we’d like to do something different – in our lives, with our bodies, our relationships – even if we are given the new skills, the old ways tempt us back again and again, and then we stay in the same old often limiting cycle…
Learning new skills with the body can be a perfect metaphor for discovering new skills within us…
As we learn skills of how to master the body, we can use these inner skills to master our life…
Stretching to press pause, to learn to be with what is in each moment; training ourselves to respond in different ways, behave in different ways, and so create different things…
To literally have the ability to turn everything upside down and see things from different perspectives, to challenge our paradigm, investigate it and try pointing our toes and straightening our legs…
And so discovering the magic of finding out what happens when we do something different….