Change of perspective

Today is the first day of my end-of-year break. I have been thinking a lot about what it means to take a break. What are we pausing? What continues? What is the break from? The implication is that we stop doing something we are doing now, and do nothing (or something else) instead.

But what if the break were just one of perspective?

To some extent this is a moot point for this particular break. I already have plans. I am picking up my family from the airport and driving them to a small island in the center of Denmark where we will celebrate the end of year. I would not be able to do this without taking an actual break in my usual activities, including regularly scheduled yoga classes.

But there are many things that will continue, activities I don’t need to stop and that I don’t need a break from, such as my personal yoga practice, daily meditation. And there are yet other activities I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to (and I probably don’t): thinking, mulling things over, being present to the world around me.

Sometimes I feel like the break I need is from believing there is something I need a break from. If my day-job gave me the same feeling that yoga and meditation gave me, I wouldn’t ever want a break. And that feeling is predominantly in me.

I am not suggesting that we can shift everything through mere perspective. There are activities that I prefer over others, regardless of how present I am to them. But I do think things are much more subjective than we tend to assume. Being truly present in whatever we do can shift that activity from tedious to engaging, or at the very least not a bore.

So why don’t we just do that?

Originally published at https://www.yogatheworld.org on December 20, 2023.