You Don't Learn Yoga

Several months ago when our self-isolation began, I read an article about what people were hoping to accomplish during this time. 

Of course there were the goals you expected to hear, clean out the extra room, finish a painting project that you started years ago. But the one that got to me, and has taken me this long to write about, was the person who said that she wanted to learn yoga.

 

Learn yoga? Gasp. I'll tell you that my reaction was one of shock, even dismay. Yoga is so much more.

 

 So let me share with you what yoga means to me and maybe these words will somehow reach the young woman in the article.

Yoga is life. It will be with you during the hours of the night when you can't sleep, it will help you to listen to your breath, in and out slowly, better than counting sheep. It will be with you, teaching you to be flexible when someone rushes ahead of you in the parking lot. Yoga will comfort you on the mat when the tears called fear escape. Yoga cannot be contained.

You don't learn yoga, you practice yoga. Every moment, every day.

Poses are not accomplished, there is always another pose waiting to show you your limits. Flexibility is never reached, we always need to bend to circumstances beyond our control. 

Breath is not just breathing. It is peace, it is comfort, it is the juice used to teach us. (Tweet This)

Yoga is about ignoring the person who doesn't stop talking, and the person who always arrives late to a class, any class. Yoga is about finding the teacher you need at the right time, the one that teaches you about strength, and also the one that inspires stillness. 

It is about knowing and keeping close the friends who will fill your heart, the boss to keep away from, the person whom you've outgrown. 

Yoga is about growing to be who you are in each new day.

It is not about learning, it is about practicing.

Practicing when you are tired and have one more thing to get done for your child. Practicing when you are impatient because you have errands to run and an elderly neighbour wants to chat. Practicing when you see the poor choices made around you but have to let someone learn on their own. Yoga is about practicing to forgive, practicing to love, practicing life.

You don't learn yoga, ever, you practice it, just like you practice life. (Tweet This)

 

Stay well, stay kind.

 

Searching for the Middle (to Keep Your Balance)

Yoga in the morning. A restful sleep. Not too many people on the roads.

Searching for the Middle to Keep Your Balance 

Courtesy Pixabay photo-graphe

Some of us know each other, some are new to the class. A woman I haven't seen before, puts down her mat and says, I guess I should get the other crap now too. I laugh, yoga and crap, two words I have not combined in one sentence in a while. She looks around, and goes to get the props we'll use today.

We are all new to this building, a new location, some distance from our previous site. Brand new, finding our way, hoping there are coat racks this week. Finding our preferred spot in this long, narrow room. So different from what we were used to, where we each knew where we belonged.

My yoga teacher reminds us to slow our breath. She tells us we will build the class to finish with some balancing. There are loud groans in the class.

She guides us to standing on one leg, swaying, looking upward, growing our branches. There are giggles of frustration or embarrassment as we take turns falling out of the pose.

Each day differs from the one before, our teacher says, some days we are solid, some days we waver.

Searching for the middle to keep your balance.

Searching for the Middle to Keep Your Balance

In our family, our work, our yoga practice. In the traffic, in our relationships, in our goals.

There are days when our class is easier than others. Some days all we can manage is to sway. Balance is serious business. (Tweet This) Don't forget to breathe. But if we keep our eyes forward, we know that we are in this together, we can see the humour in our daily practise.

As in our new yoga studio, each day we know that things are not the same. That there will be surprises (what, that was only 2 hour parking?). That someone will arrive late and distract you. That someone in the corner is sneezing, again.

At the end of the class, we all put away our props (our toys?), we lend a hand to others to clean up, we chat with the stranger, and welcome back those we haven't seen for a few weeks, we smile at how much the young pregnant woman has grown. We glow with her.

We're all looking for the middle, we enjoy the familiar, sometimes we brace for the new, and then with time, it becomes normal (Tweet This). We can hardly remember when it was new. We just need to keep our balance until then.

And most often, if we just put away our own crap, we can find the middle together.


That constant search for something between the familiar and the new is our learning. That moment of comfort keeps us in balance.

We need the middle until we find a new middle. That's how we grow. (Tweet This).



Now tell me, how do you find your balance in the middle?


Be well,

Saying Goodbye on the Yoga Mat

So many changes at this time of year. From our little ones heading into their first classroom to those starting their first official day of retirement, and everyone in-between. How do we manage? How do we cope? What are we teaching each other?

This is a month when I feel it's a time of change and transition. Just like my fellow yoga practitioners as we said goodbye to our teacher, you too might be facing a new you.

Saying Goodbye on the Yoga Mat

I remember when our teacher was new. Of course we all had thoughts in our heads. Would she challenge us? Would we like her style? Would we stay or go?

As with all our goodbyes, in every aspect of our previous experiences we must evaluate what this chapter in our lives brought to us. When our teacher first told us to breathe in to a count of 4 and exhale to the same count and then increased it to 6 or 7, yes there was a moment of stillness, of surprise. What? or for some of us WHAT? How could that be? How could we do that?

No one wants to look like a fool.

However as time went on, we were able to do precisely "that". We were able to challenge our previous thoughts and push our boundaries. Oh, it was definitely not comfortable, let's say that right now! And although the practise of yoga is supposed to be our practise (we're all learning something), not the practise of the person beside you (put away the comparison), not what you see in Yoga Journal (not everyone can bend like that, honestly), not what you see on Facebook (show me the real you not a meme), you still have that moment of but...but...but. We resist.

"What you resist, persists."

Carl Jung 

We want to be in control, because we are just human, we want to fit in and we don't want to stand out (foolishly) except if we stand out as awesome, magnificent, better than any one else we know. Right?

Our egos can speak really really loudly.  

That's why yoga has taught me so many things. That's why we are told to stay in the stillness between our breaths, because it is silent, uncomfortable, uncertain, and we just have to wait. Something that most of us are not practising each day off the mat. We want to get the rewards without putting in the time to learn. We want the hack.

As Erwin Raphael McManus shared in The Last Arrow: Save Nothing for the Next Life we want the (perfect) life without suffering the wounds, without the scars. We want it to happen easily.

Yoga has taught me about saying goodbye to old beliefs. It can give you the courage to breathe into the unknown. To stand on your toes. To reach. It can teach you to trust. And to know that you will grow and get better, if you allow it. But it is hard work. It is commitment. It is discipline. It is saying goodbye to what was.

It is saying hello to what is to come.

How yoga is teaching me to say goodbye well. (Tweet This)

Lessons on the yoga mat, breathing and reaching into change. (Tweet This)

Balancing on a Bender Ball

Balancing on a Bender Ball in Life

A softish green ball, that's what our yoga teacher asked us to use yesterday in class. A Bender Ball. A squishy, round, harmless looking object.

So far so good.

Now hover one leg. WHAT? (I say in  my inside screaming voice.)

Zip up (you yogis, know what I mean). Compact your hips. Oh, and by the way, try not to wiggle around, in other words, don't fall off your ball.

Stomach muscles I know you're there. Do your job, I say to myself. Look calm, concentrate. You can do this. Keep yourself level. Hipbones straight up, like high-beams, facing the ceiling. Focus on this one thing.

Trying, trying. Oh, and don't hold your breath, relax your shoulders, don't clench your buttocks or any other part of yourself.

Oh my goodness this is hard.

Balancing on a Bender Ball - so many things to do 

This is Life. Balancing on a Ball. Maintaining calm, breathing, staying level each moment. (Tweet This)

Not panicking, trying not to fall with a thud and appearing foolish to those around you.

Following directions, trying to learn, doing our best to get stronger.

Next time things seem a bit out of control, let's think of this moving green ball. Relax. Play with it. And if we fall off. Climb back on and giggle loudly in our inside voice. (Tweet This)

*This post is not sponsored! Just my experience with a green squishy ball and what it taught me.

Holiday Reading - Most Loved Blog Posts for 2017

My seven most loved blog posts are here for your holiday reading. Each one sharing a little bit of my life, of my year of Simplify and hopefully touching you in some way.

Thank you for your comments over the year, I am so glad to know that my words reached you wherever you are in the world. I hope that you feel more inspired, have had a chuckle or two, and feel less alone knowing that we are all connected.

Let's not hesitate to reflect on and to celebrate the journey we've travelled. (Tweet This)

If you just recently happened to find this post, I welcome you to join this tribe of folks who continue to search and share the Everyday moments that can give us the most profound lessons. Let us continue to grow together!

Wanting it All

...I needed to recognize that there are a number of ways to get Freedom and it doesn't necessarily need to be about Wanting it All, it just needs to be what each of us want our lives to look like.

(read full post)


 
Overindulgence – do you or don’t  you speak up? 

We are usually governed by politeness and not stepping on toes with our opinions or worries. But is there a point when we are compelled to speak up?

(read full post)



 Don't Lose the Spell 



You don't often get to eavesdrop on a conversation when you're out on the running path. The timing has to be perfect, the wind quiet, and no other distractions taking place.

Last Sunday, I heard a fellow say "I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did." (read full post)

Karaoke Tourist

She was an accomplished singer, in a church group. She played the piano with skill and feeling. But what she wanted to do is sing Karaoke. Something different. An Elvis fan, that's whose song she'd choose.

She just didn't know when or where. Surely not with her prim choir friends. Certainly not where if she was terrible, she'd have to wear her humiliation. (read full post)

Yoga Saturday

What is Saturday to you? Rolled out my mat this Yoga Saturday, and took away so much more.

A wonderful work-out (work-in?) with Sherry this morning at yoga. Setting the intention, and making my way through each asana, breathing, in, out. The sun sliding across the windows, making each of us blink as we practised our balancing on one foot. The swaying tree.

Coffee at Bumpy's Cafe, sharing a raspberry and chocolate chip scone (because eating a whole one would be just way too much goodness). Enjoying the mild temperature, walking down 10 Ave.

Breathing, in, out. Time to reflect, give thanks, think about the week that's gone by. Quickly, oh so quickly.

What's next? I sit here now and hear the whoosh of tires, the gentle hum of car engines not too far away. There's a peace to them today.

The afternoon shadows are leaning into my office space. Making dark shapes against the walls reminding me of all of us this morning, bending, reaching, forward, backward. Quietly finding our own space this Saturday, balancing today with the days that have passed. Grounding us for the next week.

Breathing, in, out. Waiting for the next moment. No intended outcome. Just open.

Let today fill your soul with the possibility of what is to come. (Tweet This)

May the shadows creep away into the corners, leaving the brightness of your perfect day behind.

When we roll out our yoga mat, we take away so much more. (Tweet This)

Yoga, Comma

During my week off, I had a chance to fit in three yoga classes and keep up on my half-marathon training aside from all the other things I like to do. What I didn't anticipate is that my yoga teacher's words of "inserting a comma" could be so literal.

This new teacher of mine, moved with grace and intention. She spoke quietly but firmly and I suspect some wisdom. She talked about enjoying the movement, appreciating what our bodies give us each day, and inserting a comma.

I've had a lot of different yoga teachers, this was something new. What her words meant to me was that we don't need to stop our movement, whatever it is we might be doing, but to enjoy the process. We do not to put a full stop to it but every once in awhile it is important to stick in a comma.

So once again, maybe because I pushed too hard to enjoy every moment of my time off, my back started to ache. Whether I wanted to or not, I had to reach for a hot-pack for the sore spot!

And while I was lying on the living room floor, I realized I had my comma. Now I could appreciate the crown molding, the lighting fixtures that we've upgraded and the plant that needs some plucking.

Insert your own comma, before it inserts itself! (Click to Tweet)