Yoga lessons - Having our buttons pushed
By Megan Jones
Written by Yoga Teacher Megan Jones
Two of my many favourite activities of the year have just completed their annual cycle. Although they are not connected directly, they are linked by the thread of being of deep interest to me. Reflecting on the end of the term with our last yoga lunch today I found they do link unexpectedly.
Our last Choir session of the year was on Sunday and since we already performed our end of year concert, we were enjoying singing songs we loved.
One song was a Hebrew melody and we each had different parts given to us by our Choir Director.
The Altos sang the English translation “May the trials of my life become the clay with which I create my life.” We each sang our part and it was so empowering owning the big challenges that take place in our lives and knowing we can mould them into our very being and way of life.
Today I used those words in our Mudra at the beginning of our final yoga class of the year, when we bowed the first time in Respect for Ourselves, as we do with the Mudra; then Respect for Others and their rich experiences, and then for All There Is and what life offers us knowing we are part of all that there is in life.
At lunch today to celebrate our year together and Christmas we chanced upon a conversation about having our buttons pushed at times.
The two thoughtforms of shaping our experiences to make our lives, and the experience of having our buttons pushed, merged together.
We had a lightbulb moment when we twigged that just as our experiences are our own and we share them; so are our buttons.
We have our own buttons and when they are pushed it isn’t to do with the other person but how we respond from our own life experience, thoughts and attitudes.
We decided that what we love about yoga and meditation, among many things, is that is gives us the space and a pause button before responding so that we get that little beep of awareness when our buttons are pushed.
It was a subtle Christmas gift before heading into the season when we can be under pressure at times and also be with people we don’t always have in our lives.
It is very empowering to know that ultimately for all of us “I am the master of my fate: captain of my soul” as William Ernest Henley wrote in Invictus and which we witnessed in the Invictus Games earlier this year.
