Sitting Cat Style

Ask a yogi what the most challenging aspect of their practice and if their answer isn’t meditation then well, I don’t want to say they are lying but they probably are. Meditating is hard. It takes discipline and…well a lot of discipline and patience. To be really plain and kind of brash about it you sitting around waiting for nothing to happen. But really nothing, not a thought! I don’t even not think when I’m sleeping, seriously my dreams have taken a stress turn and I’m planning conversations and making to do lists in my dreams (whatever happen to old naked dreams, I’m leaving that open for your own interpretation). But back to meditation and it’s elusive charm. I want to have a meditation practice so very much badly. And I know that setting a routine would be very good for me and my half vata dosha but I’m having trouble setting one. So in the meantime I’m trying to meditate like a cat. 

Did she just say meditate like a cat? Yes, yes I did. But I don’t mean to purr as some anthropomorphizing chant like exercise, or to practice stillness by stalking small birds and baby rabbits. No, what I really mean is that the other day I practiced meditation like a cat might, in a patch of sun as it shined through the doorway. I didn’t mean to meditate that way, which is to say I didn’t have a plan. I’m still working my morning routine out. What I did was open the door to let the dog out for a pee. But if yoga has taught me anything it’s to appreciate things in the moment; big, little, and all kinds of in between. The light that morning was amazing, it was dappling through the ancient oaks, it was warming off the cold night air of early spring and it was inviting. I put my coffee down and sat in the doorway, eyes closed and taking in the morning. I was meditating like a cat by basking in the sun and letting it wash over me and for a few brief moments my (other) half pitta brain shut down and stopped thinking. I didn’t find nothing; I didn’t get to that ultimate detachment but got to contentment. Which for my life right now that’s pretty darn good. 

I was content, not bursting with joy or giddy with excitement, I was just there. I was in the moment, I was peaceful and I was grateful. One of my favorite yoga sutras is: santosha anuttamah sukha labhah, which translates into, by contentment we gain ultimate joy. So maybe I was bursting with joy and giddy. Maybe that’s what real joy feels like, fleeting and precious and all because I spontaneously meditated like a cat.

my sunny window and meditation mat