The Life of a Yogi
Two
more weeks gone! It’s really hard to believe how fast the time is going. Now,
it’s sort of weird to imagine that there was ever a time where I didn’t get up early in the morning to
practice.
Week
three started out strong – I woke up Monday morning and had one of the most delightful practices. I realized that I
was finally starting to get used to the routine, and I actually felt strong and
open in my body, and clear in my mind. Practicing in the morning now is really
no different than any other time of day (it helps that I invested in a little
mini-heater for my room where I practice, so I don’t feel as cold and stiff at
5 AM as I would normally… I highly recommend this to any of my trainee friends
who are reading!).
Anyway,
I was feeling so great that day that I decided to walk to train station to get
to work, and then when I was about a block away from the train I stepped off a
curb strangely and twisted my ankle. In the past, my reaction to bodily injuries
of any kind was usually along the lines of a major freak-out. As a former
student in a dance conservatory, I guess that was understandable; every time I
felt something tweak, I would immediately assume my career (and pretty much my
life) was over.
I think it speaks volumes about the
power of these practices that I was able to just sit for a moment and say, with
almost unbelievable calmness, “OK. This just happened. I’m not really sure what
the damage is, but no matter what, it probably won’t last forever. Let’s just
get up and see how that goes.”
That,
to me, is really the beauty of all of this. Yes, it’s still hard work, and yes,
a lot of the time it’s also hard to even find the time to do it all – but for
me I’ve been learning to live so much more in the moment, simply because I have
to take everything one day at a time (sometimes one hour at a time).
And
then of course these shenanigans with the twisted ankle just reinforced that idea
– take it as it comes, and breathe through everything. I had to take few days
off from asana completely, but then
by the fourth consecutive day of not even doing a sun salutation, I was going a
little bit crazy. The first day back to the practice I had to skip a few
postures, which somehow just felt wrong to me (I guess from the sequence being
so trained into my muscle memory), but it still took me almost 90 minutes to
finish because I had to do everything soooo
slowly and mindfully. It was definitely necessary, though.
These
last two weeks, for me, have been about learning to make do with what you have
before you. It’s becoming much easier to see that everything just sort of is – none of it is really good or bad (it’s all our own projections), and to assign
those labels automatically is something worth questioning.
Sending
love and fortitude to all my trainee friends (and anybody else) who may be
struggling, stressed, or under pressure right now… It’s a new week – a new
chance to take everything as it comes!
Jaya Ganesha, Jaya Ganesha,
Jaya Ganesha Pahimaam;
Sri Ganesha, Sri Ganesha,
Sri Ganesha Rakshamaam…
~Danielle
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