“The best gift we can give anyone is our calm presence.”

I don’t even know where to begin with where that first started to sink in, but I’ll try.

First, there was the fact that it was the end of a particularly challenging yoga class.  Challenging for me, anyway.  Challenging because I took up running again last week (HI, CARDIO!) and feel like that works different muscles than yoga, so I was all stretchy in different places than I was used to being.

The class was challenging because one of my favorite instructor happens to be everyone’s favorite instructor, and forty people in a yoga studio is hot and sweaty and close.  And challenging because on top of working new muscles in a packed studio, these classes are heated to 95 degrees anyway.

So, I was hot and working some new muscles groups in different ways and these aren’t excuses, I’m just saying it was a challenging class.

“The best gift we can give anyone is our calm presence.”

So, an hour passes and we’re working our way into savasana, and I know I shouldn’t say “work” because here’s where we do all of the real letting go and real just being and real stillness*.  Except it’s tough sometimes to quiet our minds and be calm after being energized, and to put aside – even for a couple of minutes – the busy that’s in our minds and just be present.

And I hear these words, and I start to breathe them in.  Chew on them.  Meditate on them.

My calm presence.

Which, is interesting for a number of reasons, the most obvious to me at the moment being this hovering feeling of over-stimulation.  Produce, produce, produce, output, output, output.

Conversely, I’ve been seeking input lately, to avoid burnout.  I love producing, creating, and expressing, but my soul has been craving knowledge and learning about my world, my relationships, and really I just wanted to absorb information without feeling as though I had to regurgitate it.**

So, I tried to absorb this, and let it sink in.

“The best gift we can give anyone is our calm presence.”

So I considered how my calm presence is and could be a gift.  How calmness during conflict, whether external or internal, could be a gift to myself and my relationships.  And I considered what it might take to find and keep that perpetual calmness during the busy times, the high levels of activity, the quick pace.  I knew from watching my body and mind react to stimuli recently that I definitely need to balance all of the output with a little more input - listen more, read more, absorb more.  Give myself permission to watch that documentary, to read that magazine, and to stop writing and producing long enough to have things to write and produce about.

OH.  Interesting concept.  Hi, Balance!  Nice to see you again.

I also determined that yoga and rest had a lot to do with it, but I also determined that what’s true for me in that answer may not be true for you.  So…

How do YOU hold yourself accountable to stay calm under pressure?  Cool under fire?  Or if you don’t think a calm presence is the best gift you can give someone – your lover, your friend, or yourself – then what is?

*I know, I know.  We do all those things in all the postures.  Yadda yadda…
**The irony of the output that is blogging is not lost on me, don’t worry.

Also – I’m thinking about making “Off the Mat” a regular, weekly series – thoughts?  Anyone else like this idea?

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