Being with not knowing

May 2021

How have you found the easing of lockdown?

One constant in this pandemic is that everyone’s experience has been different.

We’ve all experienced upheaval over the last year or so – at work, in the patterns of our daily lives or through the effects of Covid directly on ourselves, our friends and family.

Right now feels to me like a period of transition. Transitions can feel a bit uncomfortable, even if they’re positive, like walking in a new pair of shoes.

A yoga practice can support us through times of transition. While you’re on the mat you can slow down and listen – noticing how the last year has landed in the body. Connect with your breath. Start to release some of your patterns of holding tension in the body. Notice the support of the floor beneath you and allow yourself to let go of the pressure of being someone, going somewhere – even if it’s just for the next hour, or for the next five minutes.

One of the most challenging aspects of the pandemic has been that we have been forced to be with not knowing. This ‘not knowing’ threatens our comforting belief that we’re in control. And yet the truth is that control is an illusion…none of us know what the future holds. When we recognise that our efforts to control our lives in any meaningful way are fruitless, we can let go of the struggle. We stop swimming and discover that we can float. It is when I truly let go that I feel invisible hands supporting me.

But letting go is really hard for us humans! So we need to be kind to ourselves. When I find letting go difficult (which is most of the time), I say to myself, “how human of me”, I take a breath and I begin again. Luckily for us this process is not an intellectual exercise (as intellectual exercises tend to tie us up in knots). Moving and breathing differently is a doorway into letting go.