What is a home?

A home is a place where one lives, where one is comfortable.  It can be an environment that offers security and happiness.  Maybe it is a valued setting, regarded as a refuge or place of origin.  Any way you choose to define it, home seems to be synonymous with comfort, stability, peace, and warmth.

What is your home?

Is it the physical house where you reside?  Maybe home is a feeling you get when you are in the company of certain special individuals. Maybe you feel at home in a certain geographical region.

Why can’t we feel at home even when we aren’t “at home”?

Trick question…we can.

This week I would encourage you to try to bring those feelings of home into your every day lives.  Carry them around with you like a security blanket.  Try to be at home with your decisions.  Be at home amongst the people with whom you surround yourself. Be at home in your environment.  Be at home in your own skin.

During times that might be perceived as uncomfortable or shaky, scary or difficult, conjure up those feelings of warmth, peace, and comfort.  Imagine your home.  Imagine the place that you perceive as home or the people who make your house a home.  Try to breathe steady and calm as you would in your home and let the stress of being outside of your comfort zone melt away.

For example:  I love Northern Minnesota.  One morning this late summer I was lucky enough to make it out with my camera for a beautiful foggy sunrise over the water, which to me is a quintessential Minnesota moment.   During times this week when I might feel tested, scared, uneasy, or stressed I will try to call to mind a mental image of that scene and breathe.

In your yoga practice this week, try being at home on your mat.  As you end your yoga practice and you are about to re-enter your day,  sit for a moment in Easy Pose. Click here for information on Easy Pose.  This posture is also called Sukhasana.  ‘Sukh’ means pleasant or comfortable in Sanskrit and in this pose you should be able to feel completely at ease. Practice that feeling and practice bringing that feeling with you in your day to day life.  Let it be your mantra for your yoga practice; “I am home.”

Let’s try to make it through the stress this week by being at home…