For the fifth year in a row, I celebrated the Summer Solstice in Times Square on my yoga mat. 14,000 yogis flocked to the center of the Great White Way yesterday thanks to the event put together by the Times Square Alliance to demonstrate the possibility of mind over madness. A lot of people have asked me how on Earth I can find peace at this kind of event. To me the most profound peace is found not in a quiet corner of the world, but in the midst of life. Once we can find peace in every day living, regardless of circumstances and surroundings, then that peace will always be ours.
Last year, I took the class that Douglass Stewart, a senior teacher at ISHTA Yoga and YogaWorks, taught. It was transformative in many ways. I began taking his classes at ISHTA as a result of that Times Square class and I am now half way through my 300-hour advanced teacher training at ISHTA. Beginning this Friday, I will assist Douglass’s Tuesday evening and Friday afternoon classes. (I hope you’ll join us!)
Yesterday I also made it a point to take Douglass’s Solstice class this year and as I made my way downtown, I thought about how much has changed in this past year. I found a deep confidence to pursue a life of my own design. My yoga and meditation practice were a big part of the fuel that drove all of this change. In the last few days, I’ve felt lighter, brighter, and more alive for having made the Leap into working for myself. There is a true and palpable peace that we find once we live the lives we are meant to live. It really is true that we can be free if we want to be.
Douglass spoke extensively about energy – especially appropriate given the intense heat that Mother Nature poured down over New York City yesterday. “Energy goes where it is most needed; where it can do the most good,” he said. Heat is energy and it transforms everything it touches. It burns away what is unnecessary. It shines what is left behind in its wake. I felt that mid-afternoon heat of the solstice touch down on me, helping me to let go of everything that no longer serves me. My own energy now has a new direction and it is doing much more good in the world now that it is directed toward work I love.
It wasn’t very hard at all for me to find peace yesterday in the middle of Times Square. I just rolled out my mat and went exactly where Douglass led us – inside our own centers. The mind can do much more than block out madness; it can actually use the energy of the madness around us to evolve, and ultimately, to blossom. Happy Summer!
Christa Avampato 