Two very separate ideas have collided in a beautiful way for me recently. The first is Abundance. The second is non-hoarding, the fifth moral restraint of yoga. The first has been a repeated conversation topic with family and friends. The second has been what comes up for me lately during meditation and reflection.
At first glance non-hoarding suggests simply not stockpiling stuff. There is great wisdom in shedding unneeded things. But it’s more than that. It’s also about not hoarding time.
Saturday is the best example. Finally a day where we have a bit more say over how to spend our time. And so how do we begin it? By creating a mental or written list of all of the things we “must” do. (“Must do or what?” we should be asking ourselves.) And if your list is anything like mine it is often inhumanely long. The results of this approach are predictable – as the day rolls on a sense of anxiety builds as as we realize we won’t get everything done. And even in the slight chance that we’ve actually managed to get everything on our list done (and there is, I confess, a satisfaction to that) we likely feel a weariness that leaves little left of us to enjoy the fruits of our labors. But usually the list is not done, and the residue of the day is frustration with ourselves for not being enough: not being smart enough to have solved the day’s problems quicker, or not strong enough to have physically done the work faster or longer into the evening. And the great irony is that this incessant quest for more has left the day and us feeling very small and very insufficient. It has created a feeling of scarcity rather than abundance.
So what does an abundant day look like for you?
For me a beach day comes to mind, in fact a very particular one … It began with an invitation from friends, Erik and Emily, to come to Cape Cod, where they were managing a seasonal theatre. There were no specific plans. We slept in. We were invited to join them on their morning ritual at 8:00 am to swim across a large pond. After walking through a sandy forest of low scrub pines to get to our watery destination, the swim was leisurely and full of conversation (though yours truly made an exercise session out of the first half of it before relaxing into the true nature of the event). Upon return half the kids were wandering around looking hungry and breakfast seemed to just happen with all pitching in. Clean up was the same. And somehow Erik convinced my shy sons to drive all the kids to the local library. And there it was, the four of us were magically and effortlessly on the beach, without having planned it. Talking and snacking for hours and hours, flying a kite, and snacking and talking some more about dreams and hopes and relationships and fears until hunger drove us back to the house. Again lunch flowed easily with all helping out, after which some of us went to a lakeside tower to watch the sun set and little Lily fearlessly invited strangers to hold hands and pronounce their love for one another. A very late dinner around a portable fire on the back deck left us chatting until we dropped off one by one in our chairs. It was the longest, fullest, most abundant day in a very long time.
But perpetual vacation is not realistic. And there is often much to do and truly great joy and growth can come from doing it. So how do we go about this doing with a spirit of abundance? How do we stop hoarding time?
Create space around your tasks by doing less. Remember, this feeling of “not enough” is in the end exactly that: a feeling. A feeling stemming from your fears – the fears you are working to excavate and face through your practice. And once you see them, you know you have a choice. You don’t have to act out of fear, as deep as that pattern may be. Look instead to love. There is an abundant well of love and joy already inside you, right here, right now. Make the choice to practice tapping mindfully into that well. Let go and live in the abundance that is already here for you.