I was on the train this morning on my way to jury duty and it got stuck in a tunnel for 20 minutes. There was a cute little kid sitting beside me. When the train stopped I turned and said, "Uh oh" and immediately I saw terror go across his face. I said, "Ooh did I make you nervous, I'm sorry, there is nothing to worry about." His face softened and he asked, "Then why are we stopped?" I said, “The conductor just said that there is congestion ahead…” (I repeated it because I knew he heard it but didn't understand) “…which means that there are trains ahead of us, and we have to wait for them to move before we can move." He softened a little and asked, "How long?" I said, "I dunno but probably not long." He completely softened and said "OK." I don't know what it was about that tiny exchange but it really moved me. I've been practicing yoga for about 10 years now and I'm always amazed at how you can always go deeper in your practice. The philosophy being, you do the vinyasa so that you can calm your body down to meditate, to be present.

I feel like it's working. Instead of being worried about being late to jury duty I made sure I was sitting and breathing very deeply, and because I was in my body I was acutely aware that I had scared the little boy and was immediately able to calm him down. His little "OK" let me know that I had respected him and acknowledged him as a person.