Perspective

So, I’ve been doing this 30 Day Yoga Challenge. Each day I have come to my mat with a different perspective.  I don’t want to be here…I’m so mad we’re doing another flow…Gosh this feeling is amazing…ouch I hurt.  But, each class I have tried to come back to my breath.  Come back to fully taking in the experience and walking away with a new perspective. 

  A few days ago I took two classes almost back to back.  My second class was a silent class and with the sound of each buzzer we were to change poses.  Now, I am not too big on silence…I’ve had to train myself to find solitude and it’s benefits…but…I was up for the challenge.  Two minutes in to class I hear this loud grunting behind me.  My focus was taken back to an elderly gentleman behind me.  I wanted to stay focused, so I quickly turned my gaze back to one inch above my mat.  Through out class my silence was broken by this gentleman making struggling sounds…sighs of pain.  It was at this moment I really saw perspective.  From his view he felt defeat, struggle, anger, force, perhaps judgement…but from my view all I felt was love, understanding.  I wanted so badly to put my hand over his heart and tell him to let his body be for awhile…perhaps it wouldn’t fight against him.

You know, I think our lives some times are like a hot yoga class.  Finding peace under stressful circumstances…that we have often times inflicted upon ourselves.  I walked in to this hot room.  I asked to sweat my pants off.  So why am I so angry at my teacher for asking me to hold a pose for thirty more seconds?  And why do we have such a hard time allowing ourselves to sit and be still? 

If the older gentleman behind me had just taken a moment and allowed his body to sit…lay… breathe…he would have gained that much more from his experience.  But instead…he decided to push through.

I have the tendency to push through.  I’ve noticed a lot of my twenty-something year old friends are trying to push through.  We want to get it right.  We want to be successful.  We’re go-getters, so we're pushing our way to the top no matter the struggle…and perhaps feeling like we're struggling to make life work.  But, I wonder…what if we just laid in a neutral position for a second…took the time to breathe in and exhale…would our life fall in to place?  Would our bodies allow us to move in to the next pose instead of feeling like we have to force it? 

This obviously goes against the grain of what we’re told.  “Fight your way to the top!”  “Never, never give up!”  “Keep pressing forward against all odds!”  But what if we could find peace through adversity?  What about taking time to exhale?  What about allowing our hard work to lead us to our goal rather than forcing our goal to happen? 

Maybe all we really need to do is exhale.