Timeless Lesson

I finally returned to yoga a couple of weeks ago. I'd given it up in April because of the Annual Foot Surgery, and so the fascia felt healed enough to go try. It was rugged. The usual Saturday teacher wasn't there and the substitute apparently felt that everyone was capable of a bit more than "beginner" status. Um...not me. I tried to keep up. I knew how to achieve the positions mentally, but the physical part was so out of practice that I really strained. I had sore muscles for days afterward. Then, the following Saturday, the regular teacher was back, and we took it a little easier. I don't know what got into my brain, though, because I kept checking my watch. Mistake.

One of the aspects of yoga is that it isn't just physical. The teacher is calmly reciting a series of directions as you work through the positions, but she is also reminding us to "be in the moment" and let "now" be the only thing we are involved with as you "send energy to your muscles so they can move just a little further."  That sort of thing is continually being mentioned. However, that week, I just felt impatient or something, and I kept looking at my watch and seeing how much more time we had left.

This week, I accidentally left my watch home. What a difference in my experience! When I realized I wasn't wearing it, I no longer even considered the time. I simply concentrated on the movements and, as she advised, let all my thoughts be "in the moment." First, the class zoomed by, and before I realized, we were lying there in the final relaxed stage, as she smoothed our brows with a scented oil and I felt how truly refreshed I was after an hour of very strenuous movement. I hadn't even considered time. I simply turned all  of my thoughts inward and really focused on each muscle we were moving, and extending my spine, and in lengthening my neck. It really was bliss...as advertised.

I realized how nice it would be if I tried to spend more of life "in the moment." For instance, I have a friend who never wears his watch to the temple. Good idea...When I'm having an especially good day in school, I'm always startled that the day has ended so quickly. (Recognizing that the clock is my task master in class...) But, I think it is going to be a goal of mine to avoid checking the time whenever I'm having an especially "present" moment, so that I can just be there, and be it, and not mess up a great part of my life by anticipating its end.