This morning, driving back from yoga, that was my question to God and the universe in general. Yesterday I went to fit club and night yoga and this morning, less than 15 hours later, I was back in yoga. The class was better than I expected. No heat or breathing problems and even my arm muscles held up okay. New things are now cropping up. Today, even after all that exercise yesterday, my muscles in general were extremely tight. Poses that posed no problem for me for two years, are extremely hard now. But I get it. I’m ready to move to a new level in yoga. Moving to a new level in everything is hard. One of my friends in yoga class is newly pregnant. Thinking of her practicing behind me, my mind went back to my own pregnancies. I had a hard time just being pregnant, never mind going to Bikram yoga, too. I give her kudos for showing up.
Then, on the way home, I put the two ideas together and came up with the idea that everything is hard because it’s all like birthing. Diet and exercise are hard. Writing a book is hard. Fighting an illness is hard. Working on a marriage is hard. Losing someone and letting go is hard. Doing a huge project at work is hard. You name it – anytime something is going to change and move to a new level, it’s hard. And we like it that way. Don’t say “What?” We do like it to be hard. We like it to take a tremendous amount of effort to accept setbacks, get up and keep trying, and finally move forward.
Every change we undertake, whether it’s voluntary or involuntary, requires the changing and rearranging of body and brain cells to move to that next level. The pounds get lost, the book gets written, the illness gets better, we learn to let go, and the project gets done, – only after we have been broken down in some way and built back up in another, and this process is never easy. And that’s where the worth is created. That’s why everything is hard. And that’s also why we like it that way.
Once a friend asked my husband and I “Why does there have to be levels?”
Remember:
“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” Jim Rhon
Change is moving to the next level. I always picture the level as a flat plane above me and I’m climbing up on it, hanging on, trying to get my knee on top of the plane. It hurts. It’s hard. Sometimes I think I can’t hang on one more minute. Then I finally get that knee up there and hoist the rest of myself up on the plane. It’s flat and smooth and I stand up and raise my arms in victory. It was so worth it. Then I look up. And what do I see? Another hard, cold, steel flat plane. Another level. I take all my newly arranged cells and get ready to do it all again.
And so, as another day goes by, whatever is hard right now will be worth it, just don’t give up, move and change those cells, and….I have written.
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