There is only one word to describe my yoga class today – TEDIOUS. Starting out the room was extra hot and humid. The teacher’s voice was slow and low. The set-ups took forreeever….. The poses took even longer. I gave in to standing a bit in standing head to knee. I came in late on the second set of standing separate leg head to knee, and flopped on my bum in the second side of toe stand. I was done. And there was still two thirds of the class left to go. On the floor the poses again took even longer than forrreeever….. The savasanas took even longer. I just kept saying in my mind, “I want to sit up. I’m tired. I’m impatient. Let’s MOVE. I need to run out of here.” I camped a bit on the forward bends and came in late on camel. In the final savasana I couldn’t stand it any longer if he kept talking. I covered my face with my towel; shoved it my mouth to keep from screaming. When I finally got in my car it was almost 20 minutes past the hour.
What’s wrong with this picture? The teacher was great. He knew the dialogue well for being a newbie. He opened the windows and doors. I was right next to the window so I had plenty of air. I had no trouble breathing normally, no matter how long the poses were. So what went wrong to make me so miserable?
My mind was having a hissy fit and my body bought it, hook, line and sinker. There was absolutely no reason why I just couldn’t relax and participate comfortably in that class, other than the fact that my mind just didn’t want to. My mind totally convinced my body to not be able to be patient and still for the few seconds that were added to every action. If I was physically sick, or overheated, or dizzy from gasping for breath, I’d say ok, the mind has a point. But there wasn’t one thing physically wrong or uncomfortable about my body in that class, yet it gave into the bantering of the mind.
The old adage comes true again – if something or someone is making me mad, impatient, or uncomfortable, then the problem could lie with me and I just don’t want to face it. So emerges another challenge. When my mind starts going down roads I know it shouldn’t, it’s time to reign it back before it has the body totally convinced it should go with it.
And so, as another day goes by, people and things in our lives act as mirrors and reflect back to us that which we project – we must stop and note the source of the problem, and…I have written.
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