When I first moved to the little house in West Orange that was eventually sold in the tornado of the bank collapses of 2008 I used to ride the car to the train station through the back streets. It would take me about 25 stressful minutes to make the train. Then one day, quite serendipitously, I entered the freeway by "mistake" and realized I could cover the distance in 5 instead of 25 minutes.
That day I wondered how many more areas of my life were like this, where I could take a shortcut I was not aware of, use a tool I did not know existed and incur in way less effort than I thought was needed.
One of those moments happened to me last week when I was dropping back and Sharath said "walk", meaning, as I was in the full backbend position after dropping back, to walk the hands closer to the heels.
What I normally do is lift the right hand and walk it, and then lift the left hand and do the same.
Walk! he said again. Grunting I did. Walk! he said for the third time, which was beyond any limit I ever imagined, and with difficulty, I walked about one more millimeter. At least so I want to believe.
As I came back he said: walk like this! and made a gesture of a hand crawling, sort of in a snake kind of fashion. It is easier, he concluded.
I have seen so many practitioners do that over the years and I wonder now how come I never thought to try? And, perhaps what is most important: In what other areas am I not noticing easier ways to go about life?
I can think of a few, like these three for example:
Not knowing where the thighs are in the backbends... Until I finally used a block which assisted me in making the connection
Not knowing that the best thing to come to peace is by first being kind to others... Until I made it a point to work on it
Or...
That I could have chai with the guys, all I had to do was ask...
Those are big notices, huge shortcuts that lead to deepth of asana and of insight, to peace eventually.
I hope I can remain more open to absorving wisdom from all around.
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| The little house... |
One of those moments happened to me last week when I was dropping back and Sharath said "walk", meaning, as I was in the full backbend position after dropping back, to walk the hands closer to the heels.
What I normally do is lift the right hand and walk it, and then lift the left hand and do the same.
Walk! he said again. Grunting I did. Walk! he said for the third time, which was beyond any limit I ever imagined, and with difficulty, I walked about one more millimeter. At least so I want to believe.
As I came back he said: walk like this! and made a gesture of a hand crawling, sort of in a snake kind of fashion. It is easier, he concluded.
I have seen so many practitioners do that over the years and I wonder now how come I never thought to try? And, perhaps what is most important: In what other areas am I not noticing easier ways to go about life?
I can think of a few, like these three for example:
Not knowing where the thighs are in the backbends... Until I finally used a block which assisted me in making the connection
Not knowing that the best thing to come to peace is by first being kind to others... Until I made it a point to work on it
Or...
That I could have chai with the guys, all I had to do was ask...
 |
| I wish I could translate what they said after I asked them to take a picture with them. They were laughing. |
I hope I can remain more open to absorving wisdom from all around.
Sharath told me to "crawl" the fingers/hands,but you get to a point where you can't crawl or walk!
ReplyDeleteYou can't bet Chai
chai is a great time
ReplyDeleteLife is full of shortcuts waiting for us to be open to them. Beautiful Claudia!
ReplyDeleteGlobie, yes I guess it would come to that, wonder how it will be as I start crawling... and yeah, love the chai
ReplyDeleteLilasvb, you too ha?
Priscilla thanks
just saw the mysore magic video. those people are in shape. that, to me, is the intimidating thing about ashtanga or bikram - i need to get in better shape through vinyasa.
ReplyDeleteon another note, here in my west coast town really missing the nyc yoga options despite the good weather.