I am a yoga practitioner. (I guess that makes me a yogi--though whenever I hear that I think of a bear from Jellystone Park .) Whatever the case, I usually take time each day to roll out my mat and engage in a variety of asanas (poses) with names like Downward Dog and Half Moon.
Recently though, I've been caught up in all the hustle and bustle of "the season"--that time of year here on Sanibel when we have more things to do than can possibly be accomplished! Our population swells to five times more than usual and things like class sizes for adult education and worship attendance follow suit. The height of season is February and March. And I've been really busy. Which brings me back to yoga.
I hadn't engaged in my daily practice for about three weeks when last Friday I decided I needed to get back to my mat. And so I did. And it felt good. Until the next morning! I woke up with a bit of stiffness here, and a measure of discomfort there. My body was telling me that I'd twisted and bent it in some ways that it wasn't used to anymore. And it had only been three weeks! The good news is that now that I'm back in the swing of it, the stiffness has disappeared. I'm readjusting. But still, there's an obvious lesson here about the need for regularity in yoga.
But I think there is another lesson as well. For I am not the first person to let go of a healthy and necessary discipline because I was "too busy". I suspect it happens often! But when are we ever truly "too busy" to take care of ourselves? The sad truth is it catches up with us pretty quickly if we don't. And getting back in the habit of good self-care can take much more time and effort than maintaining it! Let's hope that I'm smart enough to put my own theory into practice (literally!)
Or, in the words of that other Yogi (as in Berra): "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."
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