For many people life just gets busier and I’m no different. When I want to add something new to my teachings and offerings, that’s when I realise I don’t have a lot of space to manoeuvre and squeeze in yet one more training. It’s an old story and I’ve got quite good at and pruning my life before I try to cram the new teaching in. And this realisation goes back years. I had a dear student who became a very good friend who was struggling to fall pregnant. She had achieved a lot in her career and personal life and had a wonderful partner and they were desperate to start a family. She had been a yoga student for many years, super healthy, beautifully spiritual and nothing physically seemed amiss with either of these two people. But there was no room for anything new. Her life was hectic and the only breathing room she ever carved out was to come to yoga.

So, from personal experience I asked her if she and her partner could try to create more space. Why would a new life want to enter hers, when there was no room for anything else? Her work and her personal life were nonstop.
So she started by saying NO, much to the horror and disappointment of her work colleagues, her employees and her friends. Just no. No explanation needed. She needed time to focus on herself and her relationship.
She decluttered her social media. All that noise, all those horrible uninvited posts that Facebook or Instagram and their algorithm think you are interested in.
She decluttered her personal space and set a manifesto to buy nothing new (except for food) for 3 months and then to give away an item every time a new item entered her world.
She committed to going into nature at least 3 times a week, to exercise, to garden, to just be. No phone, just silence and nature.
She continued to come to yoga and started a brief ritual every morning before she got up, where she could meditate, breathe or journal.
She and her partner gave a lot of thought to the practicality of fitting in this new life and how their work and personal life would change to accommodate this.
It had a happy ending, and this beautiful couple did eventually welcome a little baby into their life. The best part of it was that they have never gone back to the rat race which really keeps you stuck, needy, distracted and unable to create or welcome something new into your world. It’s a great analogy for a good yoga class. We create space in our bodies and minds and choose to either fill that space with light, love, healing or joy or just leave it empty and see what manifests.
Margot Wagner
Yoga Under the Bodhi Tree
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