An illuminating moment for me in the office last week.
Usha is the sweet young lady who runs the office here at KPJAYI. She shows up at 6AM every day and puts her mat near to where I usually am. I asked her how her practice is going. She kind of grimaced/smiled and did the head bob.
“Some pain?” I asked. “Me too. So much pain, old lady.”
“I don’t speak too much about it,” she said. “It is assumed. Everyone is having.”
Oh, you mean it’s not just me and my pain? Everyone else isn’t sailing through the practice? Gee, they kind of look like they do (except for that heavy breathing over there).
Hearing Usha’s reminder was kind of an Aha moment. Ashtanga kind of hurts. And me bitching about it doesn’t really help things. Her attitude was admirable, Indian, and a reminder to me to step away from the talk.
My roommate asked me, as I was complaining about this year’s stiffness, when was the last time it did feel awesome. I can remember a few days here and there, but consistently, no.
But, I noted, it’s because so much is coming up and out. Hala hala. Not like that’s going to feel awesome. And if we didn’t work it out in daily batches now, wouldn’t we get sick later?
One Ayurvedic use for Yoga is to help us avoid disease. Reduce stress. Reduce stagnation. Move the body during the 6-10AM Kapha hours. Without some practice, we might expect to age less gracefully, and with more pain.
So perhaps medicinal doses of pain now, help us to avoid future suffering.
I embark on a mission to say nothing, unless it’s positive, about the how’s-your-practice-going. Please leave me a comment if you catch me complaining.
You made me think that awesome ones are few and far between, even little runs of consistency and feeling its going well don't last long and even when a little run is going my teacher finds a way of making it harder again. Then again if it was easy everyone would do it.
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