Pedicure Meditation
I treated myself to a pedicure today and lo and behold I experienced what we hear so often from our yoga teachers, “take the practice off your mat.” Never would I have thought it would transfer over to the pedicure chair!
As I put my feet in the water, I envisioned Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. I contemplated on His words…”Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:12-17).
So I am sitting and playing around with the lovely massage chair and chose “kneading.” Closed my eyes and asked God to knead the planks in my own eyes, roll it out, wash away the things I don’t see, that I so easily point out in others. Breathing deeper and moving more inward, the guy washing my feet, must have thought I was crazy, but I am free from worrying about what others think of me these day; so I bathed him in prayer, asking the Lord to bless him and work through his hands as he touched my feet. As he took the buffer and scrubber to my feet and spent what felt like an eternity on one foot, I thought…so like our God to slough away the calluses, so gentle, thorough, and firm. I have been receiving pedicures for who knows how long now, and think I will never experience them the same again. At that moment I realized I was experiencing a pedicure meditation.
What is meditation? I like the way Wikipedia defines meditation: “Meditation is a holistic discipline by which the practitioner attempts to get beyond the reflexive, “thinking” mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness. Meditation is a component of many religions, and has been practiced since antiquity. It is also practiced outside religious traditions. Different meditative disciplines encompass a wide range of spiritual and non-spiritual goals; achieving a higher state of consciousness or enlightenment, developing and increasing compassion and loving kindness, receiving spiritual inspiration or guidance from God, achieving greater focus, creativity or self-awareness, or simply cultivating a more relaxed and peaceful frame of mind.” Just reading that makes my shoulders melt away from my ears. Experiencing higher states of consciousness is not limited to our “yoga mat,” although our mat serves as a tool to discipline the body so that we can become more aware and conscious beings off our mat.
Meditation for me is “receiving spiritual guidance from God to develop and increase more compassion and love towards others.” T.K.V Desikachar a yogi master and author of “The Heart of Yoga, Developing a Personal Practice,” defines the term bhakti. “The term bhakti comes from the root bhaj, which means to ‘serve.’ By following bhakti yoga, we offer all our thoughts and actions to this higher power. In everything we see, and in every other human being, we recognize God-truth. We act out of a conviction that we are serving God. We always carry his name within us. We mediate on him. We go into his temples. We are completely devoted to him. That is bhakti yoga.” Even in a pedicure char!
So the next time you treat yourself to a pedicure consider experiencing bhakti yoga.
- Greet the person with your eyes and heart. Bathe them in prayer and send them love.
- As you place your feet in the water visualize Jesus washing your feet.
- Close your eyes and take deep full breaths.
- As the pumice stone sloughs away calluses or hard edges bring to mind something that needs to be smoothed out in your heart or mind. Observe with the mind’s eye and see it wash away in the water.
- Finally,absorb, receive, soak it all in and then go “love your neighbor as yourself.”
