You Don't Need an Excuse to Sit

In the late 90's, as I moved beyond the socially acceptable smoking culture of college life, I surprised myself by continuing what had become a daily habit. I would explain to my love, who gently prodded me to stop, that I enjoyed the quiet ritual of going outside alone after a meal, sitting down and having a smoke break. It was true. I loved the time for reflection and for communing with nature from our front porch, even as the smoke coiled around my face, polluting the air within me and beyond. While it may seem ironic to non-smokers, it felt like a good excuse to sit.

Fortunately, yoga found me in the early 2000s and reminded me that I really preferred fresh air (I was the kid who would roll down the car window in mid-winter whenever my dad smoked) and did not want to pollute my lungs and endanger my health any longer. Yoga granted me lots of opportunities to "break" from the world and go inside. I learned that I was a human being, not a human doing, and that spending time just BEING was essential. It helped that yoga teaching was becoming my job, and I had to practice daily as part of my training program; thus, sitting was authorized.

Some years later I became a mom, and there was much less time for yoga breaks. I found that feeding and rocking my babies was another way to sit and be quiet and let everything outside of my littles and me fall away. Even when the time came that I longed to be done with diapers and tantrums, I held onto holding my children as long as I could. I still sit and hold them occasionally, at 9- and 8-years old, when they let me, and I savor these moments to just be, during which I feel like I have a really solid excuse to do nothing else.

As a mother--or perhaps simply as a person in this modern world--I struggle with making time for my sitting (meditation) practice, along with my yoga practice. I think about all the other things I need to do and forget that I require these practices for my well-being, and that I absolutely do not have to justify taking this time. I repeat--for myself and for anyone who needs to hear it--we do not have to justify taking time to be.

So go ahead, find a comfortable seat, whether it's in nature, or against the side of your bed, or on a yoga mat, whatever works. You don't need anything special. Just sit and follow the breath, even if it's just for a minute, and remember: This is your life. Live it right now. No excuse needed.