Today in yoga class our instructor had us do a one minute camel, in honor of Mark and Shirley (fellow students), who are away in LA at Bikram training. She told us the story about the first time she did a one minute camel. She said she thought the Bikram police were going to come and arrest the instructor because she didn’t think that there was such a thing as a one minute camel. She had only done sixty second camels and never heard of one minute camels. She thought it was utterly impossible, but she did it and found out that it wasn’t impossible at all. She said camel teaches us that all things are possible. This is just another example of how we bring our struggles into the studio and resolve them there with poses such as camel. A one minute camel encourages us to go out there and do that which we thought couldn’t be done.
For me, today, it’s using Siri to write this blog. A few days ago my stylus just stopped working. It was very frustrating. I started tapping the keys harder and harder until finally I tapped the microphone by mistake. Okay, I thought, why don’t I just talk the blog. Ha ha. Easier said than done. I’ve been shying away from using the voice control to write because I find I can’t think and talk at the same time. To me, it’s a lot like walking and chewing gum. Nevermind the part about having to voice all the punctuation marks, too. Writing by talking is a lot like a one minute camel – impossible, or so I thought.
I took a lesson from my yoga class this morning and decided to give it a shot. At first, it’s a lot like doing public speaking alone in your living room, complete with all the sweating and the nervousness. Then I discovered if I just do one sentence at a time, press done and read the sentence, I do much better. It’s harder, faster, but, just like a one minute camel, definitely not impossible. In fact, it’s like the games they tell you to play to keep your brain young. It’s right up there with Angry Birds (which I gave up on long ago). I’m not giving up on this, though. Today I vow to use it from now on to write my blog and see what new things I learn to make it easier every day.
I’m led to think about the bigger things in my life that, to me, represent one minute camels and new technology. Maybe, one sentence at a time, with patience and consistency, they, too, are worth trying.
And so, as another day goes by, my yoga shows me I’m-possible, encourages me to try something new, to be patient, to practice consistency, and …I have written.
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