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Kareen's yoga by Kareen Zebroff
Who has time for making a list of New Year’s resolutions, never mind implementing
them? I’m still working on getting the fat off last January’s resolution.
Was it ever thus? Or is it just our harried and frenetic generation? We all know
that time is mysteriously relative, sometimes seeming to whizz by at dizzying
speed when we are having fun and sometimes slowing down to an agonizing crawl
when we are not.
They say it’s partly metabolism - it slows down considerably from its revved-up
childhood rate when sleeps and special occasions took ages to arrive. And it is
that very sluggish metabolic rate which makes time seem to go ever faster as we
age.
Intrigued scientists wanted to know: Did time seem to pass at the same speed for
our great-great-great-grandparents as it does for modern man? The perhaps not-so-startling
result revealed that our time does indeed seem to pass eight times faster than
it did for our ancestors in 1903. Everyone whom I told of this astounding result
was stunned at so large a number but was not really surprised at the fact of it.
All sighed deeply.
No doubt this amazing speed-up of time is also due to the ever-present demand
for immediate response to mobile phones, pagers, faxes and email; to satellites
having made instant communication possible anywhere in the world; to having to
roar around the country, raging at other drivers, because we are late for our
too tightly-scheduled appointments; and, to the feelings of helplessness engendered
by our inability to be able to escape from all those ringing bells. And so we
are literally drowning in the minutiae of all that we are expected to do. No time
for ourselves to think, to meditate, to pray. But rather, a spiralling down into
a sea of worry and stress - finally to succumb physically, mentally and emotionally
to being overwhelmed.
How pressured I felt, for instance, by having a time limit for any number of musts-dos
- including the writing of this column ahead of time - to go and visit my new
grand-daughter in Africa. Concerned friends, relatives and yoga-teachers came
through for me. They would, they said, help to save me time and effort by providing
me, and thus you, with New Year’s resolutions that make life healthier,
happier and more relaxed for all of us.
Janet: "Stop; pause; remember that the very best time to relax is when you
don’t have the time for it."
Cathy, a mature mother: "Take time off for myself; don’t be too proud
to take others up on offers of help with cooking, vacuuming or babysitting - even
if it’s only for half an hour."
Bir Kaur Ross, yoga-teacher: "Continue to learn the meaning of the words
commitment and surrender - not just intellectually but also to feel them in your
life."
Sylvie, a working mother studying for a master’s degree: "Start walking,
even if you have time for nothing else; it centres you, refocuses your energies,
releases tensions of the day, helps to overcome exhaustion, enlivens with fresh
air, and last but not least, firms the bum."
Eve, author / journalist: "Live your life with the philosophy that Yes is
more interesting than No; say Yes to all the weird and wonderful things you’ve
been meaning to do for years."
Niki, yoga-teacher: "Bring more heartfelt joy to all you do, so that it can
then spill over into your life, infusing all you meet, causing them to send it
on into their communities - until we are all wallowing in happiness."
Jutta, eminent yoga-teacher: "Con- stantly remind yourself to create space
between the ears and shoulders, to unclench your jaw, to smile frequently, and
to allow yourself at least 10 minutes a day alone - all the better to reactivate
your energy and replenish your well.
Winona, a journalist who lived eight years amongst the poor of Guatemala City:
"Never give up, even though you may have spent a lifetime struggling in vain
with the here-and-now, but rather keep reaching out into the unknown in hopes
of finding the ‘why’ for it all."
Pegge, vital yoga-teacher at 84: "Pray to be given the strength, and especially
the continuing energy, to do your ever joyful tasks."
Kareen: "Continue trying always to have integrity with - and love behind
- your every thought." (Not so easy, as we humans have about 60,000 thoughts
a day - most of them repetitive).
Anonymous, to all chauffeurs: "Don’t drive faster than your guardian
angel can fly."
Happy New Year to all.
Kareen Zebroff’’s classic, revised book, The ABC of Yoga (Foulsham
title: A Gentle Introduction to Yoga), as well as her Yoga-Over-40 video, may
be ordered from her website www.kareenzebroff.com
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