{Yoga} This is the Place

THIS IS THE PLACE

I see these words painted in bold, black script on the wall of a yoga studio I recently practiced at while visiting at my former hometown. As I unroll my mat and lie down on my back, I begin to settle in to the heat and to the quiet of the space. It struck me at first to be an odd phrase to paint on an otherwise stark yoga studio wall… “This is the Place”… “This is THE place”?... “This is the (BEST) place”? or just “This is the place”? There are so many ways one can interpret these 4 words, but as I repeat the phrase inside my head with my eyes closed, I decide to focus on “THIS is the place” and hold on to it as a little mantra for my practice.

I wrote a blog post not too long ago on a similar topic – that classic notion that ‘you are exactly where you are supposed to be’ (http://www.livingwithenvy.com/#!Vision-Yoga-Are-You-a-Jackhammer-or-a-Hummingbird/c1k7g/566f03420cf2fb0fe5adf158) and the idea that even though that is a rather lovely concept, for so many of us, this feels far from our personal reality. Thinking over this phrase, I continue to glance at it from time-to-time. As I move from up dog to down dog or while in at a standing pose at the front of my mat, I am drawn to these words that are now more than just “words”. How good it feels to, for now, live in that definitive -- that “no two-ways-about-it” mantra beginning to infuse within me . “THIS is the place”. Why am I so fixated on finding some hidden meaning in this? The studio owners may have haphazardly chosen this phrase for their studio wall and never really given it much thought.

I don’t believe I am alone in that I, admittedly, spend a lot of time questioning "Am I in the right place?’" “Am I in the right place at this point in my life?” “Am I in the place I should be at, at this point in my life?” “Am I at the place I need to be at for my life? “

I look at the wall yet again and come back to the bold confidence and the decisiveness of these four words beside me. Why are they inspiring me so? Why can't I look away? I try them on for size… “This IS the Place”

Why not consider THIS? Why could this – as in, the this right here and right now -- not be THE place? Why is it so farfetched that the place I am in at this very moment is really ok – or perhaps, it’s better than ok? Maybe it’s really, really good?

After Savasana, I open my eyes as I am still lying on my back and cock my head to this wall to my left. I take it in one last time before re-rolling my mat and leaving the studio. Yes, I’m going to try THIS place on for size. I’m gong to live in it mentally -- as well as physically. I’m going to embody it and I'm going to embrace it. I may even commit to it.

It all becomes clear, THIS is the place.