Walking over to turn off the nightlight this morning, the smell of the marsh at low tide wafted through the window and caught my attention. I spent a few moments with my arms and chin on the windowsill gazing out on a beautiful rainy Cape Cod morning. The fog covered marsh across the road had turned that bright spring green and told me summer is almost here.
That nice, idyllic way to begin my day soon took a downward turn a couple of hours later when I entered the hot room. The pre-class mat chat was mentioning that it seemed a bit hotter in here today. Oddly, to me, it wasn’t that hot, but I felt something slightly uncomfortable, too. Then it dawned on me. Summer brings that misty elusive visitor to the cape – humidity.
Today was the first spring day I noticed the humidity was up in the room. I put the thought aside, and started class. My heart rate was on the rise by the middle of the first pose. Oh no, it’s too early to wrangle with a bit of humidity. This has to be shut down now. I paid extra attention to my breath, but as I bent over for standing forward bend, I stopped pulling so hard. I just eased into the stretch. As the voice of the instructor encouraged us to pull harder, I pulled slower. I made it to where I needed to go by relaxing my muscles and just let the stretch happen. Right then and there I set my mantra for the rest of the class. Relax, move slowly, no unnecessary movements, and reach my capacity for each pose by easing into them, instead of tensing all my muscles and taking them to the max quickly.
Class, from that point on, progressed beautifully. Eventually the teacher cracked the window right next to me, the rain was beating down outside just a foot away, my mat cooled off and I actually felt like I was practicing outside. Humidity, for today anyway, was kicked to back of the class.
When I left the hot room today, the words “with ease” followed me. I have a lot to do this week, some of it new stuff that could I could be a little anxious about, and taking on the mantra of “with ease” as I left the studio, quieted my monkey mind.
The end of May holds a lot to be anxious about. School ending, graduations, holidays, summer guests arriving, family gatherings, and the list goes on. Approaching them “with ease”, instead of muscling our way into the summer season, would reduce anxiety and let the people we care about have the best side of us.
And so, as another day goes by, a rainy week and the hot room bring forth good things, and…I have written.
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