Reclining pigeon pose…OUCH!
LADY IN THE ELEVATOR: You’ve been working out with a trainer.
ME: Yes, I have. I love it.
LADY IN THE ELEVATOR: I’m been watching you. You’re very limber.
ME: I work at it.
Two years ago, no one would have called me limber… because I wasn’t. I was very rigidity. I hobbled out of bed. I made audible exasperation sounds when I had to pick something up off the floor. I gave an old man grunt going from sitting to standing. Tying my shoes had the intensity of an olympic sport. I thought my body was just retiring early and I was heading into my old lady days.
When I turned 49, I started doing yoga on a whim. It was all a part of my turning 50. I was trying to optimize my mind-body-spirit connection. I thought with yoga, I’d get a stretch and some peace in the process. I didn’t really have any other aspirations other than that. Yoga changed my life. Or I should say yoga is changing my life because it’s all about the practice of doing it.
It has helped me tune into what my body needs. The poses have been developed over the centuries to balance the body-mind-spirit. While I’m building strength, I’m ridding myself of daily toxicity. The focus is finding peace and letting go of the negative. Literally, I can’t be limber if I’m rigid. I can’t find true internal harmony if I’m spewing a lot of hateful thoughts. And hate is too strong of a word (and a word I don’t care for). If I’m not being kind, I’m being negative and that’s not good for me. If I have to have it my way or don’t accept people where they are at or choose to partake in mean-spirited reactions, it’s not healthy for my life.
Last night, I went to restorative yoga, a two hour practice designed to give the body a recharge. Most poses are supported with props allowing the body to let go of the control and relax into the movement. I love restorative yoga. I’m usually the first person to sign up for the class offered at Ganesha every six weeks. Yesterday, I had difficulty in the reclining pigeon pose. This has been a recent and ongoing trouble spot in my training with Josh.
The pose is a hip stretcher. In the last few months in my training with Josh, my knees and shoulders are giving me less and less discomfort. Josh modifies exercises to build up strength and release tightness. As those areas have decreased in neediness, my hips have become the sore spot. Josh pointed out that the tension had to go somewhere. And I’ve realized whatever I’m harboring in my head is currently burrowed in my hips.
In yoga practice, in my Josh training, in my own daily routine, I work on my breathing. I take in the new and exhale the old. I send intentional refreshing oxygen into my troubled body nooks. And I work to get the carbon dioxide out of those spots. It’s hard to reach the recesses of my mind and body where crap hides. Yet, I work to excavate it. I can’t be limber if I’m rigid. Having been both, I know all too well that limber is better!