Work was long and sleep was short. After 8 hours at the shop, my friend Catie spent an hour talking to me about my yoga practice and re-balancing my body with some much needed acupuncture (she even brought me slowly back to myself with tuning forks - awesome). Post needles, I went home and started working on a chem lab report, homework, reading and prep-work for a new lab assignment; all of which needs to be done by tomorrow except for my homework, which is due in 2 hours. 5:30 sneaked up on me and I had to postpone my yoga until the 7:30 class. It's now 7:25 and I am still in my house, finishing up work. Today will have to be a skip. And that's alright.
During my talk with Catie (and numerous other yogis - especially Jill from wandering yoga), we discussed the importance of yoga as an honored time for yourself, not an obligation to further stress over. When you try to squeeze in 2 hours for yoga and class suddenly becomes an obstacle in your day, it's alright to skip. You can make up the time. Right now, finishing all my class work for tomorrow is more important than going to a yoga class that I would view as time consuming, instead of liberating. So instead of fretting over one missed day, I'm going to do 30 minutes of svaroopa yoga before bed. I'm going to finish all of my work in the next 2 hours and get to sleep by 10. I'm going to get 8 hours of restful, restorative sleep. I'm going to listen to my body; it's telling me to take a breath and take a break.
Class: Svaroopa yoga: The Magic 4
Instructor: Me
Studio: My living room with a chair, my mat and a stack of books serving as yoga blocks.
Wins: Breathing; Finishing all of my work; 8 hours of much needed sleep.
I agree the yoga shouldn't be something to stress over. But I find the days when I don't feel like I've got the time for it are the days when I appreciate it the most. Those days it's also hard to find time for yourself, and going to the room well it just naturally becomes meditation and your space. Even if you don't have a meditative feeling in class most days.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Johan. And I know, the days I need the yoga the most are the days when I'm completely stressed out. Yesterday was not like that; I was completely worn out and had too much school work to complete. No excuses for skipping, more of an explanation of why I am committing to daily practice. The good thing about a day like yesterday is that it will balance out with a day like friday: completely free and open. I can do a double and be right back on track. Going forward, hopefully I will not have so many tasks stacked up on one day.
ReplyDeleteIt was good for me to remember that I am doing this Mala for myself, not to prove something to someone else. The yoga is for me; my time to grow, change and explore on my terms. Understanding that in relation to all of my endeavors (finally, after 24 years) is really nice. I'm going to enjoy the peace that comes from making my own decisions based on my needs.
After all that (long winded!), I do agree with what you are saying. Hopefully that agreement showed up in this lecture on "what yoga means to me;" sometimes accord gets lost in personal reflection.
There are some who oppose doubling up. There was actually a big debate on this issue on the "oh my bikram" blog in January.
ReplyDeleteI'm of the school that says "101 classes in 101 days". Meaning if you miss, make it up. I just don't see the point in throwing in the towel if something happens. Where is the benefit there? I've got 3 to make up. So your one will be a piece of cake! :)
During my third Bikram challenge, I finally realized that trying to cram a ton of yoga into a condensed period of time just to "make" X classes in X number of days wasn't for me. Ultimately, the yoga was stressing me out. Which is why I so appreciate this post---because, obviously, yoga shouldn't stress you out. Not at all!!
ReplyDeleteI am blessed the days I can make it to the studio. And the days I can't just make me that much more eager to return. And it's because I've lifted the expectation and the pressure from myself that I find myself on my yoga mat at least six times a week anyway.