the poses we take
One of my yoga instructors says that becoming injured can be a blessing in disguise. My heel started bothering me in January after an ill-thought change in running shoes, so my running became an off/on thing for awhile. Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon but I am back to a more normal routine this week, albeit out of running shape and with the creaks that come with taking a few weeks off.
But back to the blessing in disguise thing.
What I am really telling you is a very old story. It's a story as old as humans because it's the essence of survival, we adapt to change, we learn new things, we embrace it. In March I picked up a regular yoga practice which I am now unsure how I ever lived without it. I thought yoga might mimic the mindset of running and in some ways I was right. You get in tune with your body. You listen to what it's telling you and most times "just be." But unlike running, in yoga I do not force my body to do anything it doesn't want to do…well except for toe pose…toe pose is meant to challenge the mind.
I'm not sure if it's the nearly daily deep sweat of yoga in a hot room or the calming effect of meditating on one's breath, but my mind is becoming more focused. It's a pleasant side effect to meditative types of physical activity…you learn to pay attention to your body…your mind learns to focus on one thing and let other thoughts pass. It's easier to fall asleep at night. Sometimes I think I might fall asleep at the end of a yoga session. I'm really good at the final pose in which you simply lay on your back like a dead person. I am perhaps the master of this one. In just a few minutes I am on the verge of sleep, ready to delve into the deepest stages of slumber. And just as I begin to lose consciousness, the teacher calls me out. I'm so calm and comfortable, I think I might just lay there and dehydrate myself to death…which at that point I feel is somehow more comfortable than leaving the sanctuary of the yoga room. I am exactly where I should be.
Like every step I run. Like every vision of a sun setting or rising. It is another moment when I can smile. There are so many. And it has me pondering another lesson that yoga reinforces…live in the moment.
Most of my life I have worried about the big stuff…which has always seemed to turn out in its own way and not the way I might have predicted it. And yet my happiest and most meaningful moments were times when I put aside my worries and lived in the moment. Yet it seems counterintuitive in our society to wake up and live one day at a time. Do not mistake this to mean that I no longer have long-term goals…just that I understand the end goal may never come. I may die before I get to the point I wanted to reach. Even more likely, my end goal could morph into something that current-day Sam cannot yet predict. But this isn't about goal setting at all. This is about respecting today for what it is. And I am sure, most sure as I lay in corpse pose at the end of my practice for the day, that I am actually living in the moment. No phone or computer, no talking, no deadline and nowhere else I am supposed to be. Just laying there breathing. I am exactly where I am supposed to be and there is more now to be enjoyed than I ever gave it credit.
Except for toe pose ;)
But back to the blessing in disguise thing.
What I am really telling you is a very old story. It's a story as old as humans because it's the essence of survival, we adapt to change, we learn new things, we embrace it. In March I picked up a regular yoga practice which I am now unsure how I ever lived without it. I thought yoga might mimic the mindset of running and in some ways I was right. You get in tune with your body. You listen to what it's telling you and most times "just be." But unlike running, in yoga I do not force my body to do anything it doesn't want to do…well except for toe pose…toe pose is meant to challenge the mind.
I'm not sure if it's the nearly daily deep sweat of yoga in a hot room or the calming effect of meditating on one's breath, but my mind is becoming more focused. It's a pleasant side effect to meditative types of physical activity…you learn to pay attention to your body…your mind learns to focus on one thing and let other thoughts pass. It's easier to fall asleep at night. Sometimes I think I might fall asleep at the end of a yoga session. I'm really good at the final pose in which you simply lay on your back like a dead person. I am perhaps the master of this one. In just a few minutes I am on the verge of sleep, ready to delve into the deepest stages of slumber. And just as I begin to lose consciousness, the teacher calls me out. I'm so calm and comfortable, I think I might just lay there and dehydrate myself to death…which at that point I feel is somehow more comfortable than leaving the sanctuary of the yoga room. I am exactly where I should be.
Like every step I run. Like every vision of a sun setting or rising. It is another moment when I can smile. There are so many. And it has me pondering another lesson that yoga reinforces…live in the moment.
Most of my life I have worried about the big stuff…which has always seemed to turn out in its own way and not the way I might have predicted it. And yet my happiest and most meaningful moments were times when I put aside my worries and lived in the moment. Yet it seems counterintuitive in our society to wake up and live one day at a time. Do not mistake this to mean that I no longer have long-term goals…just that I understand the end goal may never come. I may die before I get to the point I wanted to reach. Even more likely, my end goal could morph into something that current-day Sam cannot yet predict. But this isn't about goal setting at all. This is about respecting today for what it is. And I am sure, most sure as I lay in corpse pose at the end of my practice for the day, that I am actually living in the moment. No phone or computer, no talking, no deadline and nowhere else I am supposed to be. Just laying there breathing. I am exactly where I am supposed to be and there is more now to be enjoyed than I ever gave it credit.
Except for toe pose ;)
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