The appropriately green (because green is the color of our Fourth – Heart Chakra) moss grows on a heart (appropriate again!) shaped rock on the nearby beach and gently reminds me to take care of myself. This rock feels so gentle, so soft, so strong and so wise… and provides a safe place and space for reflections and introspection. The shape is not perfect but it is clearly a heart – It gives me the permission to be just the way I am. I stand next to it, feel it by touching, by soaking up the greenness of that moss, by breathing in the salty sea air, and allow my heart to just be. The longer I stand next to it, the more I am filled with gratitude and the feeling that everything I ever needed is right here. And that, even though not perfect, I can be who I am. Letting go of my worries and (perceived) scarcity in my life. It all happens in this magical place next to the rock. And at this very moment.

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The many places we tend to spend our time at day in, day out are quite different from the space next to green heart rock. Airports, shopping malls, highways, grocery stores, streets, lobbies, public waiting rooms etc. are all perfect examples of non-spaces (a term, coined by the French Anthropologist Marc Augé) – they do not hold enough significance to be regarded as ‘places’. Those are the non-places where the individual stories can not exist, as a convergence of all the stories of all the people (unaware of each other) happens there, therefore granting anonymity to anybody who enters. So, Marc Augé suggests paying attention to ‘here and now’ as a remedy to the ubiquitous non-places situation in our modern world.

The space next to the green, ever-changing, mossy rock on the beach is that remedy for me – it is a place that gives me space/time and (most surprisingly) a permission for self-love and self-directed kindness. Here and now.

In its own subtle way Let It Go yoga practice is like that green mossy rock of mine – it is ‘a place’ in my life – a real place – AND it gives me a permission and also space and time to be who I am. Here and now. By acknowledging my own true North Star. And, yes, absolutely, there will be those “mossy moments” in Let It Go yoga practice when you feel that all you need to do is touch… the moss and to breathe… into the pose, the problem, the unsolved mystery… and then keep going – keep doing, keep holding the pose – keep working (at) it – at letting go of those appendixes that we no longer need, and at celebrating the ones that we do need and appreciate and cherish…

Oh, and by the way you can find that heart rock only when the tide is out … but you can practice Let It Go yoga at all times…
Story and photo contributed by Indra Strong

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