It's one thing to know something and another to do it. Yesterday I had the lovely experience of feeling like someone had kicked me in the posterior, complete with cartoonish light bulb appearing over my head. I completed something that I had been procrastinating over for weeks. Weeks. This is not the first time I've done something like this and most likely it won't be the last. I know how to handle this type of thing. After all, you don't live in this world for a little over four decades without learning a thing or two.
You've gotta prime the pump! You can't just go from a full stop to full on flow. Things start with a slow trickle. I sat down yesterday and started slowly. I did the simple, low hanging fruit task. Before I knew it -- BAMMO! -- the task that had been leapfrogging daily in my calendar after missing deadline after deadline was complete. And I was left scratching my head wondering, "Why the heck did I wait that long to do this? It wasn't difficult at all!"
It's how we go sometimes though, isn't it? The dusty yoga mat sits in the corner, looking like a naughty child in time out. As the days go on, you beat yourself up over the fact that it's sitting there unused. You tell yourself that you "should" get to it, you "need" to make time, you "must" get back to it and are bad for having let it go this long. All of this leads to a buildup of the freeze. You know what I'm talking about -- you've built up something so grand in your mind -- it's going to be so difficult, it's such a big thing, blah, blah -- that you're frozen in inactivity. You've got all kinds of negativity swirling about -- you're bad for letting things slide, getting back into it will take such effort, there's not enough time, I'm a horrible person, I should be doing this or that, I'm so stuck and this is so hard.
Here's the joke of it all -- it's easy. Yep, it's anything but the insurmountable task that we've built it up to be. It's definitely the mole hill and not the mountain. Here's all you need to do -- drop the expectations of what should be. Drop the notion that it needs to take this amount of time or that amount of effort. Just walk over to that mat, dust it off, unfurl it, and get thy body onto it. Put your hands in Prayer Pose and stand there for 1 minute. Done. Yes, that's right. Let that be your practice. Go ahead and roll the mat back up and return it to the corner from whence it came. Why can't that be your practice? [Note: the Yoga Police will not raid your house if you do this]
Unrolling that yoga mat and getting on it is the practice. Some days I just get on my mat and raise my arms up from the sides overhead, hands meeting at the top of the breath, and exhale the arms back down to my sides. I do this a bunch of times and then call it a day. I don't berate myself for not doing Sun Salutations and a full complement of poses and counterposes. I do what I can do for that day and then I move on. Sometimes the simple movements turn into a longer practice. Sometimes not. Sometimes it's 15 minutes of the Five Tibetans. Others it's 10 minutes in Savasana. Yes, that's it. That's enough.
As shocking as this may sound (and perhaps very unyoga-like for a yoga teacher such as myself), it doesn't always have to be an elaborate 60-90 minute practice. I rarely practice for that long. I usually end up at 30 minutes, but I don't get judgmental if it only goes for 5-10 minutes. I suppose that's my secret for having a regular practice for over 12 years. I just keep doing something. It doesn't have to be everything. It just needs to be something. Something starts the flow, gets things moving.
And, more often than not, something turns into everything.
Namaste!
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