Yoga Set Free Blog
It's an ongoing lifetime education for any of us bold or foolish enough to sit in the teacher's seat — learning to look at a room full of differently 'posed' bodies. With instruction cues focused less on the gross outer forms and more on the imperative to breathe into harmonious, liberating alignment from the inside out.
When we first began offering The Mindful Unplug ten years ago, the name mostly pointed toward the obvious thing: stepping away from our devices for a while. Back then, even the idea of consciously choosing to spend less time tethered to our screens was still something of a novelty.
When we first began offering The Mindful Unplug ten years ago, the name mostly pointed toward the obvious thing: stepping away from our devices for a while. Back then, even the idea of consciously choosing to spend less time tethered to our screens was still something of a novelty. Ten retreats later, I think the unplugging that matters most may be larger: unplugging, even briefly, from the incessant commentary, from the demand to have an opinion about everything, from our own habitual stories about who we are and who everybody else is, and from the idea that every minute needs to be filled or productive or documented.
We do not only take care of ourselves by holding the line. We also take care of ourselves by shaping edges that allow for the right kinds of movement. Not everything and not indiscriminately. But enough.
There is a quiet, almost mischievous simplicity running through so many of the great wisdom traditions, whether you wander through the teachings of Buddha or Jesus, sit with Laozi, or read someone like Jon Kabat-Zinn. Different languages, different metaphors, different rituals, and yet they keep pointing, again and again, to something almost embarrassingly straightforward.
