Yoga is not a workout it’s a work-in. This quote was taken from Meditations from the mat
I read this quote this morning before yoga. It resonated so much with me that I highlighted it and used it as my intention during my yoga practice. Like most people i started yoga as a way to work out. I used the opportunity of being kept in Saguenay for one more year as an experiment of what yoga could be in my life if I were to practice it every day, read about it, and try and live it through out my life. Through this process I have learned that yoga is not a work out. It has great benefits of a workout (just ask my never before existed arms and back muscles) but it is not just a work out. I guess it could be for some people, but in my opinion the other, more important, benefits of yoga are pretty hard to ignore.
I wasn’t sure why this particular morning this quote hit me quite hard, and it really stuck with me through out my practice. Then I got to advanced half moon pose.
The pose itself is not difficult for me, well that’s not true, sometimes it is rather difficult. But I have been trying out a choreography with advanced half moon pose that sometimes works, and other times really really doesn’t – this makes it quite challenging. The choreographyd I’ve been trying begins with advanced half moon (as shown above). Now in order to do the pose properly you don’t only grab your foot but you also need to open your hip. If I can successfully open my hip and remain balanced – half the work is done. But it doesn’t end there. After I have completed this pose (I try and stay for five breaths) I realign my hips to the centre and without bringing my leg or arm down I get into dancers pose.
Ok, sounds semi-normal, right? Well, I’ve accomplished this choreography maybe four times without falling in the last four months. ( I don’t do this every day, but the times that I have, I have finished it without falling a total of about four times). Today, standing on my right foot I was able to actually do the full sequence without falling. However, on my left foot, I couldn’t do it, at all. I tried three times, failed all three, and I was frustrated. I realized I wasn’t only frustrated with this dumb choreography that doesn’t even really matter. I was frustrated with moving.
Now, I want to make this clear, I WANT to move. What I’m frustrated with is not the moving itself but what is surrounding the move – the military. Being involved in the military as a member or as a spouse you need to give up control. You need to realize that sometimes there’s nothing you can do, even if the orders make no sense, you have to roll with the punches and keep going. Yesterday, we were told that we were not going to be able to move until mid December due to our possession date on the house being on December 15. We had been told in Belgium that J’s COS date (date he begins working – December 01) wouldn’t change even though we don’t get possession until two weeks after. Now, this issue has now been resolved, but this morning I did not know that.
So while I was desperately trying to hold my advanced half moon pose, balancing on my left leg, I could feel something boiling up inside me, and I heard the words I can’t do this come from the boiling point. I fell out, I got back up and tried again.
– Boiling point again
– I can’t do this again
– I fall down again.
I repeated this about three times, until finally I decided to re-evaluate. I instead did my advanced half moon pose got out of the pose, stood in mountain, and did dancers pose from there. Then I thought yoga is not a workout it’s a work-in.
It dawned on me that I had done both poses. Yes I hadn’t done it the way I had invisioned in the choreography, but I didn’t give up, nor did I push myself beyond my limits. Instead I found my balance for where I was at today. That is why yoga is not just a work out (one of many reasons). Your life seeps into your practice, almost always. And because it does you see how you’ve grown, what you need to work on, and the many reasons why you can’t balance or whatever on that particular day. Because all there is, is you and your mat, and in order to do yoga you must listen and learn not from an instructor or a book or even a guru, but you listen to you, to your body and your mind, and you learn.
I realized in that moment through these two poses and my difficulty in performing them today, that even if we had to stay in Saguenay until mid-December and move with tons of snow on the ground, we’d get through it. I knew then that it didn’t really matter, what mattered was how we spent the last few weeks here: complaining and blaming – or making the most out of our situation. I chose to make the best I could out of the situation, just like I chose to make the best out of my lack of balance in my sequence. That’s all we can do as military families. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don’t, we can complain and pout all we want but things continue on.
Our moving date has now been moved to December 08, giving us a buffer zone. Because one thing is certain about any move, especially a military one – there will be surprises, and we will need a buffer zone at some point.
My lesson today – Saguenay hasn’t broken me in 4.5 years, I am not about to let it break me now. So bring it on Saguenay, I’m ready for whatever you throw at me. I’ve seen it all, and I’m not about to give up now. The time on my mat hasn’t just been about toning my arms or my back, I’ve learned to roll with the punches, and I’ve learned to get back up and try again when I fall down. You won’t break me now Saguenay.
Living yoga in a military wife's life 