It’s called a yoga practice for a many reasons. For me that reason is that we are practicing being in challenging and often uncomfortable situations and then telling our minds and bodies to stay calm, don’t panic, and just breathe! The bonus of that practice is that we have strong and supple bodies and calm and supple minds. Last night I had a silly little situation that wasn’t practice, it was game time! Here’s what happened: Since embarking on this yoga business adventure, Container Collective Yoga, the second week of August, I’ve found myself trying to maximize every ounce of my time. With all three of my apple devices fully functioning in just about any moment. Even to the point of checking emails while I’m at a traffic light (not whilst driving, just whilst waiting). Last night, after teaching a yoga in the park class in the New Loveland Mine Park in Golden, CO, I was driving home and went to reach for my phone that was in my bag in the back seat. Then I said to myself, “No, whatever is on that “smart” little device can wait 20 minutes. Just chill and enjoy this quiet time!” Then at the next red light my hand impulsively went for my phone and I said the same thing to myself. This happened about 5 times until I successfully made it home without filling the time! IRONICALLY, upon my arrival I searched high and low in my car and bags to realize that I must have left my phone at the park. Deep breath and possibly and angry om/sigh out. I headed back to Golden. In those 20 minutes headed west, I remembered a huge “Ah-ha!” moment in my Level 1 Yoga Teacher Training with Baron Baptiste: I think it must have been after 9 PM and our 3rd yoga practice of the day. Baron called for 10 breaths in bridge or wheel pose. Then we came down for 2 breaths and then he sent us right back up for 10 more breaths…over…and freakin’ over AGAIN! Who knows how many times Baron called out bridge or wheel….at the very minimum it was 10 times!!!! The first 3… fine, I’m used to that, but the 4th and then the 5th time I started coming down from wheel pose and launching into a giant drama story in my head (and a little bit out loud) about how tired my legs were, how my wrists felt, how sweaty and exhausted I was…what was the point?!?! etc!!! Then about the 7th or 8th wheel, something he said or something that I’d been learning in the training opened up for me. It was that I needed to let go of all of the flippin’ stories!!!! Why did I need to tell myself about my tired legs, back, arms, etc every time I came out of the posture?!?! It wasn’t helpful in any way! And why did I need to stall before going back up again?!?! It wasn’t going to get me out of the 10 breaths that were asked of me! So finally, I just let go of my drama story and went up, took 10 breaths, came down, took two breaths, and went back up again, and again and it was incredible! Sooooooo, back to my 20 minute backtrack to get the phone that I “shouldn’t have misplaced”: I found a similar drama story thing happening to me as did in that yoga practice, I’d tell myself a little drama story about “how stupid…” and then I would remember to surrender and calm myself down. And then another “inconvenient, waisting my time…!” and then I’d breathe again. And sure enough “blah, blah, blah”! It wasn’t that I was afraid of my phone being gone- I knew it was still there, it was just a matter of “loosing” the time to go get it. But FINALLY, I completely surrendered and was actually able to fully enjoy the incredible sunset right in front of my face the entire drive but hadn’t noticed because of my drama story! As it turns out- my phone wasn’t there. And long story short, a girl had picked it up, used Siri from the lock screen to call the person who’s text message was showing on the lock screen. And it was back in my possession shortly thereafter. The bonus to the surrendering is that because I was back in Golden I was able to take the time to go visit a friend that I’d been wanting to connect with! And the bigger moral of the story is that I’m grateful for my yoga practice that was really helpful for this game time/real life situation that I clearly needed to be reminded of once again and will continue to need to remember is to “Let go….” in this instance “of my drama story”. To surrender- it is what it is AND it isn’t what it isn’t….PERIOD! No story necessary.
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