Saturday, June 12, 2010

Something About Sundays...

Sundays are my favorite days. Even when it's not raining. 
But today, it IS. And it's just PERFECT.

What I love about Sundays is that I give myself permission. In fact, it is really the only day that I truly let my self disciplinarian tendencies go and embrace a healthy and delicious dose of much needed self indulgence.

For instance, it's 9am and cold outside. I am still in bed with the heaters on, a hot water bottle at my feet, computer on my lap. The first thing I have put in my mouth (after a glass of water but before breakfast) is a homemade dark & white chocolate chip, almond & apricot cookie. It is not gluten, dairy, or sugar free. It was made with lots of flour, butter, and chocolate. It was divine. I am simultaneously and playfully writing this blog, brainstorming ideas for a children's book, planning how to perfectly poach my egg, and thinking that a hot chocolate and foreign film will suit me perfectly this afternoon.

On Sundays, I don't have to worry about planning or cooking dinner. We go to Des's parents place and I relinquish total control over my sometimes stringent rules about food and embrace whatever is put in front of me. It's delightful and absolutely freeing! Quite hysterical sometimes in fact. Who would have thought that this former vegetarian (10+ years) would relish so gleefully lamb roast, pork and fennel sausages, and any soup that includes bacon?

Before we head up the hill, I set aside time to slip into my yoga room for a simple, hour-long session of asanas. Even my yoga is better on Sunday - I savour the sensation of slipping into my skin to the sultry sounds of Nina Simone. My yoga is so good and so decadently delicious, it feels utterly and brilliantly transgressive. Good thing I'm a tantrika. Blessed be :)

I have created, endured, survived many rough patches where a proclivity for self discipline, self neglect, and self judgement certainly controlled my life. Celebrating ME on Sunday in all my undisciplined, decadent, and perfectly, totally worthy human beauty was part of what I believe really saved my life. By practicing and cultivating allowance (radically unmitigated and unbarred) on one day of the week, I was able (and continue to be able) to invite more and more moments of self nourishment, self love, self IN-joyment into the rest of my week. Like I say to my friends who work 9 to 5, M-F jobs ... you gotta learn to love what you do as you do it. Or change it! You can't live for the weekends (or Sunday) alone.

How do you savour your Sunday? Really, I'd like to know. 
These days, I'm always in the market for new ways to celebrate myself...

4 comments:

  1. Today is a slightly unusual Sunday in that rather than my usual long run I'm cleaning my Mum's house who come's home today from 2yrs in Borneo. So I am giving thanks for the 5 months I've been here which as enabled me to find my feet on the ground again after moving back to Christchurch.

    My long run on Sunday is how I usually celebrate Sunday's. It's my favourite run. Long and slow. I spend a few hours going over the week that has been, thinking about the week to come but mainly just feeling my feet hit the ground, smelling Autumnal smells and feeling whatever the weather is on my face. For me it is bliss.

    And then I buy the Sunday Star times on the way home and relish reading that with some post run lunch. Ahhhhhh..... Bring on next Sunday.....

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  2. For many years of my life, I struggled with Sundays. Growing up, Sundays meant getting up earlier than I wanted to, dressing up in stiff formal clothing that I hated and heading to church. At church, I hovered close to my mother as long as possible, preferring to listen to the adult conversations rather than being with the other children. I felt out of place and insecure in that environment. I felt like the general feeling tone was one of judgement, rather than safety or kindness. I felt like there was no room for me, for how I felt or for what I thought.

    In the years of my early adulthood, before I started to practice yoga, I hated Sundays. I invariably fell into a funk of sorts and was plagued by apathy and inertia. The practice of yoga changed all that.

    Although I still wake up on Sunday mornings feeling a little bit sad and disconnected, I have created a ritual for myself that changes the outlook of my day completely. Ever since I started teaching yoga, I’ve taught a Sunday morning class. It happens in the late morning so that I can take time to prepare really thoroughly.

    Before my class arrives, I practice the class I plan to teach from beginning to end. Because most people pre-book to come to the class, I have a really good idea of who will be there. At the beginning of my practice, I look at the class list. I think of each student and hold them in my heart and my mind as I practice. As I go through the postures, I make refinements to the plan based on who is coming. Quite often, a particular student will inspire the philosophical theme of the class based on what I know about their lives and current challenges. Sometimes, as I practice, a student who is not on the list comes to my mind. More often than not, the student I thought of shows up for the class. It’s then that I know for sure that I am connected with the Universe.

    My Sunday morning ritual allows me to redirect the flow of my attention and energy to something bigger than myself or my aversion to the day of the week. My entire practice is dedicated to the sacred guests I will be welcoming on the mat and to aligning myself with the divine so that I can be a channel to serve their needs.

    By the time the students arrive, I feel much more alive, invigorated and optimistic. At the end of the class, I normally feel fully nourished and buoyant and bright. From that space, I am open to the beauty the Universe has to offer. I am much more able to enjoy the remainder of Sunday in full connection and remembrance.

    ~Kelly

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  3. Wow Kelly, thank you so much for sharing that! What a beautiful gift you are to your students...what a gift your students are to you. Your writing reminds me that when we measure our success or our happiness by the quality of depth and love we cultivate and experience in our relationships - students, friends, family, teachers - the way we relate to the world and how it relates to us changes. In ways that brighten rather than dampen the heart. You are a channel!

    Elissa - I SO know that feeling... Running, walking, yoga. Gifting ourselves the time to connect to our inner self - body, mind, spirit - in whatever way serves best always opens the door to walk out into a better day. and into better experience with whoever we share our day with. usually :)

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  4. First of all I'm so glad you're writing a blog! It's so exciting to see a post come up on my reader. I've missed your writing!

    Sundays are a pressure-free, should-free zone. No expectations. Just enjoyment and being, slowly. And usually they feel like the longest days. I love the way I can watch the way the light changes on Sundays, I can feel the season, hear the way the birds go about their business throughout the day and follow the sun through the house!

    Thank you for your honest, insightful writing. When I feel my should creeping up on me I a say "Are you going to use this opportunity to make more beauty or get sucked in?" Hmmm I know what I'd rather be doing...

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