If you have ever tried to meditate, you will know that the early stages of the practice consist mostly of focusing your attention on something (for example, your breathing), inevitably getting distracted a little while later, realising you got distracted and focusing your attention once more. Again and again, as many times as necessary, in order to progressively train your mind.
To all the expert meditators among you, who have already overcome that initial phase, congratulations! That is still a pending task for me, so I´m not able to tell you firsthand what happens afterwards (and I suspect it may not even be something you can express with words). But it occurred to me that this training of the attitude that´s needed for meditation can be applied to many things in life: the ability to quietly return to the path when we notice we´ve gone astray, without judging ourselves or beating ourselves up, simply course-correcting and continuing to move forward, without getting stuck in guilt, self-justification, complaining, or victimism..
This is the thought that crossed my mind this evening, when I finally spent some time doing yoga after a very long streak of "not having time". Instead of going on about not having been practising (which, I confess, I tend to do quite a lot lately), this time I got myself out of that spiral, took out my mat and just started, without overthinking it. And it felt great.
(This photo is from the notes I got at one of the training courses I did with my first yoga teacher, back in the 1990´s. Thanks, Carsun!)
I once heard or read somewhere a phrase that said something like practicing yoga is the same as not practicing it, and I remember feeling quite confused by this idea at the time. How could they be the same? It didn´t make sense.
Then, as time went by, I found some meaning in it; I don´t know if this is what the author intended to say, but it did help me back then, and it still does. We know objectively that yoga has many benefits; some of them are more visible and immediate, like the flexibility and physical fitness it helps us to achieve, and others are deeper and more subtle, only appearing with continuous practice. Well, it turns out that, at least in my experience, the moment you become most aware of all those benefits is precisely the moment when you lose them, after having given up the practice. So, from that point of view, regardless of whether you practice yoga or not, you get to learn; you learn that keeping up the practice (or resuming it) is the best thing you can do.
I´d like to take this opportunity to thank all the yoga teachers I´ve had the pleasure to learn from over the years, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU (and apologies if I´m forgetting someone):
- To Carsun, for teaching me the basics of hatha yoga, pranayama, and so many other things, and above all, for awakening my curiosity about the world of yoga and the path to get to know myself better.
- To Mary, for those lunchtime classes at the Xilinx gym, I really enjoyed learning to flow with vinyasa.
- To Lisa and all her team at The Elbowroom, for taking such good care of us during pregnancy yoga, mum & baby yoga and yoga for families, and for giving us the tools to take a more natural approach to labour.
- To Martina and Stuart in their beautiful Carlinford studio, a retreat I would love to return to someday.
- To Karen and her classes in Adamstown, an oasis from day-to-day hassle until the pandemic shocked us all.
- And, in virtual mode for the last five years, to Adriene, my partner during countless home yoga sessions, whom I very highly recommend (her videos are in English).
Me alegro mucho de haber vuelto otra vez a la práctica del yoga. Como dice Adriene precisamente, lo más difícil es sacar cada día la esterilla y ponerse a ello, y al menos hoy, eso lo he conseguido… ¿Que en unos días me despisto y lo vuelvo a dejar de lado? No pasa nada, ya sé que puedo volver. Y volveré, una y otra vez, las veces que haga falta, porque para mí es importante, porque merece la pena.
What about you? What´s that thing you want to start practising again? And what are you waiting for?