Meditation in a noisy room is good for you

I have come to understand that life sends us very specific and different lessons at different times of our lives.

When we are youngish and single, twenty something, cruising the world and looking at life it is all about us. This is a good time and we can experiment with ourselves and where we are at and what we think.

Later on, children come and life really begins to pick up pace. I am at this time of my life and trying very hard to face the challenges that this period of being brings. My children are my heart and soul and bring me so much joy but I have found that I have needed to adapt my everything to give them what they need. This is good for my soul but also testing, as I have said before.

I now find that I am a multi-tasker and can and do perform many tasks, with varying difficulty at once. The friends that can relate to this are my friends that also have children. My single friends with no kids, do not. This is part of life and acceptance can show that this is ok. I don’t need them to get it, I just need to feel good about it

For me, as a mum of young children finding the time and place for my yoga practice is not always easy. When I can attend my beloved yoga shala that is wonderful and an experience I always cherish, even if I did not get much sleep the night before. But it is not always possible for me to whip to the shala as the sun is rising. Sometimes I need to try and fit in a quick practice in my house.

Self practice is ok with me. It has taken me many years to get one happening and I am happy that I can now practice by myself without stopping after 5 minutes. What I have found is that to practice is my house with my kids home I need to be able to find peace in a busy place.

I always lay out 3 mats. Myself in the middle and one for each child either side of me. That way they can come and go and bust a few moves beside me for part of my practice. If they feel connected and welcome they will let me move without trying to take me away from it. So they come and go and I continue to breath and move.

Now that I have mostly mastered the linking of the breath with movement it only takes a short time until that moving and breathing have a profound effect upon my being. My inner core heats up and my heart opens and calmness begins to settle upon me. Delightful effects of yoga.

Still the children run and play and sing and shout around me. My breathing continues and my movements are smooth. Slowly but surely I settle into my practice and go within. After some time I am not so aware of them running around the house, but fully present in my practice. Multi-tasking means that although I am in my practice, present wiht the breath, I am also present with my children and what they are doing. Maybe only a yogamama will get this but it is possible to be emersed in yoga and present energetically with my kids at the same time. They feel secure in my practice and included and allow me to find that place.

Meditation in a crowded room is possible and definitely peaceful. I was whispering at the beginning of class the other day to the lady next to me and was shussed by someone else in the class. They were so annoyed at our chatting. “Cant have had kids yet” I thought, otherwise they would not have heard me, they would only have heard the sound of their beloved breath. Slowly flowing in and out, like the river of golden light it is, welcoming and warming and opening the heart.........