Due to the small snowstorm in the northeast, I stayed in NY an extra day instead of driving back to Cape Cod. It was a beautiful winter morning and I wanted to spend some time outside, so I grabbed the shovel and set out to clear some snow out in front of our apartment. Our apartment is literally “on my dad’s front lawn” and sets along a long driveway that ends with a huge parking area in front of his garage. My original intention was to clear the snow in front of our apartment and down at the end of the driveway by the road. I began shoveling and letting my mind wander, enjoying the rhythmic movement of the shovel and the gorgeous morning. Pretty soon I had the driveway cleared down past our apartment. I thought to myself, “Well, I’ll just keep going and shovel straight down to my dad’s garage”. I reached the garage and started on that huge parking area. Half way through the parking area, I suddenly realized I was no where near tired. My heart rate wasn’t up at all. I wasn’t sweating or out of breath. No part of my arms or shoulders hurt. I was doing like I do in yoga everyday – “breathing in and out normally through my nose”, completely independent of my body’s movements. I had also slipped on hidden ice, caught myself and felt my knee kind of twist. Immediately I was scared I hurt my knee, but I just went on shoveling and the knee joint was fine.
I stopped and looked around me at the amount of space I just shoveled, staring with amazement at the size of the area and, even more so, at how I felt – or I should say – how I DIDN’T feel. I knew last February when I was here to ski, I tried shoveling just a part of this driveway one afternoon and had to give up due to excruciating arm and shoulder pain, breathlessness, and sheer exhaustion. I finished up the whole driveway, parking area and all, then went in to visit my dad. He said, “That’s the first time in 51 years that driveway has ever been shoveled by hand”. He chastised me for “exhausting myself”. I told him how I felt and he, too, was amazed. I said I could still go on, but I ran out of driveway.
This shoveling episode was sheer physical proof of what Bikram yoga has done for me in just 5 months. It HAS actually reversed signs of aging that I experienced in this very same driveway exactly one year ago. If you haven’t tried this yet, RUN, don’t walk, to the studio nearest you and work it into your regular schedule. I guarantee you will save and prolong your own life. So profoundly simple. Less than $3 a day, no pills, no diet, no shakes, no energy drinks, no high impact gym exercise, no music, no personal trainers, no figuring out the right workout routine, only one mat and one set of clothes needed (cause you have to wash them everyday), and it fixes your body (totally), your mind, your spirit, and your diet, simply by just showing up for class. Amazing.
Right now, as I write this, it’s noon and I came back over to the apartment after visiting awhile with my dad, thinking I’d need lunch then probably a nap. Here I sit, after eating a piece of baked chicken, still full of energy that I don’t know what to do with, and drinking, of all things, A CUP OF PLAIN HOT WATER out of the keurig coffee maker. I now just crave water and have no desire for caffeine of any kind. I think your body knows what it wants and needs and once you indulge it, it becomes like a healthy addiction.
Look at my pic and feel my victory! I am standing in front of my dad’s garage, our apartment is down there near the road, and you can see two cars in the parking area that still extends further to my left than I could get into the photo. Who knew the long sought after “fountain of youth” was hidden in a yoga studio?
And so, as another day goes by, I feel a whole year younger, and ….I have written.
You are amazing! We all have a hidden strength we can’t explain, and it’s good that you found that power in you through yoga. I couldn’t have done that much – shoveling the snow clear of our short driveway and garage is already an exhausting exercise!