We sat on the balcony chatting. The view wasn’t majestic or awe inspiring as such, just looking over a courtyard, towards a high rise block of flats. The conversation ebbed and flowed, the wine went down and bit by bit we made sense of some work, some writing, a few small conundrums and challenges that we were variously facing. The space to our front opening up our minds and allowing room for the thoughts to emerge, some of them dropping and falling to the cobbles below, others taking flight as fully formed ideas.
Another day, another place. Training in a museum. A historic building, all sash windows and shutters. Dark and cool inside, a quiet, calm place to work with emotive content. At lunch we all emerged blinking in to the sun. The gardens of the museum providing a spacious oasis of green, inches from a bustling street. Allowing us to free our thinking and set out what we have learned and our hopes for our organisations.
A hot, airless room. Forty five minutes in to a hard work out of yoga. Sweating heavily and praying for the last few movements when the teacher suggests a headstand – something I’ve never even attempted. Patiently she talks us through it. A few grimaces around the room, a sheepish laugh from me but the encouragement is there. I move my mat to the wall for safety and slowly set up. I move first one leg and then the other. I can’t quite trust it and I swing back down.
The teacher adjusts my stance slightly and I try again. This time it holds. My legs go up and stay up. I’m fully inverted. For the first time ever in yoga my head fully clears. I lose any thoughts of being correct in my posture or where my breathing should be. Suddenly my head, heart and gut align and my conscious mind lets go.
I’m there, in the space between…..