My post last Sunday was about reaching out to your friends/family
and holding space for others. Reading that some one reached out. A friend with whom I had not spoken in many
years. We just saw each other’s posts on
LinkedIn and Facebook and occasionally liked them.
She said she wanted to speak. I offered a video call hoping she may want me
to be present. She jumped at it and when
she called all she did was cry. No words
were spoken, no hi-hellos were exchanged.
All she did was let her emotions flow.
There was pain, there was sadness in those tears and all I could do then
was hold the space for her to decide how she wanted to communicate with
me. The communication, as I realised, didn’t
need any words. Her tears were enough. And all of a sudden she was quiet. We were in that space for almost 5
minutes. I could just hear raindrops
outside the window against which she was leaning. And then, I saw her smile. I smiled backed knowing that she probably
spoke a lot in first 15 minutes when she let her emotions flow and in those 5
minutes where she just sat with herself oblivious that I was on her phone
screen. She thanked me saying she will
get back in sometime. And true to her
words she did after about 24 hours. She
said in that silence, she found the peace she was looking for, she found the answer
that was eluding her senses for a long time and she is clear of her next step though
the journey ahead is still vague.
This International Yoga Day, I experienced an element of Yoga
that is so blissful and magical. The
element of Mouna or Inner Silence. The idea of not talking for even few minutes
and especially when someone is seeking comfort, could have been daunting to say
the least. The question, when someone is
pouring their hearts out, could have been – How will I respond or what will I
do with no conversation? Few years ago, a Hatha Yoga teacher beautifully expressed
this in a class that I was a part of – Mouna provides us the opportunity to
simply watch, to observe self and others without any inner chatter or a need to
respond. It’s a space you form for yourself
and others to experience What IS.
I experienced that power of Mouna in this conversation. No words were spoken yet so much made sense
and the clarity emerged. The clarity emerged for me as well and I realised the
power of holding space:
- Silence
the ego mind – that’s where deep awareness exist for everyone.
- Just
like we are going minimalist in our possessions how about practicing the
same principles with words
- And
when we speak, the words come from the depth of our hearts and that’s when
people trust us feeling the authenticity behind them.
Just like my friend who experienced the truth of Mouna, are
there people around you who are waiting to experience it? Reach out to them and
if there is one asana you could possibly practice throughout your life, how
about this one?
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