What is it about us humans that we like things new and shiny? It applies to the obvious exhilaration around gift giving but also to experiences. Collecting experiences has become the measure by which we value our lives. In these times of global shutdown, where do we get our kicks?

      The pursuit of novelty is everywhere. It is the reason why ‘It’s for life, not just for Christmas’ hits home hard. A bouncy, cuddly puppy may be irresistible but in a week’s time you’ll be fed up and in a few years, the dog is an appendage, you can’t imagine life without it.

      Proust reminds us in his Search for Lost Time that it is not about seeing new things, but seeing with new eyes. This is just as pertinent to our yoga practice. It is so easy nowadays to skip from one teacher to another, to shop around and consume class passes. Often the teachings are barely absorbed by those imparting them, who are themselves delighting in the novelty. It is a precarious age when the fetishization of instantaneity has us ricocheting around the inner sanctum.

      So stay a while. The most precious insight comes from staying. Is lockdown showing you that? Is your suffering showing you that?

      When I experienced the sudden loss of my father, all I could do for a few weeks was Sudoku. I was hovering on a plane of existence that had me tasting the novelty fully. I could not make any other move. Filling in the little squares with numbers was as much as I could do to function somehow, go through the motions. But I needed time to let the full feeling absorb, there was no pondering, reminiscing, searching, calculating… the brain had calibrated itself to hover. I had to allow the novelty of the loss to become me, my loved one to become me. This was also the first and only time that I followed the classic ashtanga system of practice, for those few weeks. The stacked, mechanical sequencing helped me stay the course, without searching.   

      Sometimes we need tools to stay. Just like I needed Sudoku. In yoga we have asanas, we have various pranayamas, some chant mantras or count mala beads. These are our tools to stay the course.

      Ultimately they are only that: tools to let time filter in, they are how we soak it up, the full juicy illusion of it. And by time I mean life.