This past Sunday I went to a three hour Fall vinyasa flow yoga class. Three hours of pranayama, meditation, intense flow and yin yoga. It was beyond luxurious and everyone left the room in such a happy daze. When I saw my teacher later that afternoon I told her how wonderful the class was and how I wish we could do that all the time. She said to me “we didn’t do anything special, we just had more time”. And looking back at the class, her statement was right on the money. Every yoga class encompasses, to a certain extent, those four elements. But when you have three hours, you can really stretch out each component and spend time making sure you hit all the essential parts of the practice.
What’s interesting is this idea of “more time”. I spend so much of my time making sure to fit everything in that I feel like I never get to do one thing fully. I have been trying so hard to eat slow at every meal but every time I try my mind gives me reasons why I can’t. Reasons such as, I have a meeting, I have to be here, I have to do this.. blah blah blah. So I end up rushing my meal and then feeling unsatisfied a few hours later.
This phenomenon doesn’t just occur with food but in all aspects of my life. I always think that time has a life of its own and goes by too fast. That we never have enough time. I really do rush through everything.
When I first started doing yoga I used to get upset i could do not a certain pose. The rational part of my brain would say “T, you’ve only been doing yoga for a few months what makes you think your body is suddenly going to enter hanumanasa?” And the other part of me would go “but but but… isn’t my will power enough to get me there?” And the answer is no. Yoga takes time. Whether it be the asana practice, the breath work, the working on your presence, all of it requires time. Even if someone is ultra flexible, they are not truly practicing yoga if they’re not connected with the the mind, body and spirit.
I REALLY wanted to rebel this idea and push myself and become “good” at yoga right away. But want would not get my body there. I had to just keep getting on my mat day in and day out. And I swear some days the only reason I even got on my mat at all was because I had to volunteer at the studio. Eventually though, it stopped even being about getting into that pose but simply allowing myself to be in the moment. And that’s when time started coming on my side. I started becoming more body aware. I could hold poses longer. I could touch my toes. As soon as I let go of the concept of time, I had all the time in the world.
We are here on this planet for a very short amount of time. So it’s natural to want to rush through everything so we can experience everything. But what’s the point of getting all these things done, if we don’t enjoy the process? Are we much better than busy ants if we never make the effort to stop and take a breath or two?
I am really going to try super duper hard to make the time to eat slower and more present. Giving myself the present time is the best thing i can do to heal my relationship with food. What is the one thing you’re going to give yourself more time to do every day?
October 27th, 2011 at 11:33 am
Nice. I am also re-learning to take my time, eat slowly… I love it, gives me peace
October 28th, 2011 at 12:04 am
Okay, seriously. You are an old soul. It has taken me most of my life to figure this out and you've already got it. Of course, I didn't delve past the physical in Yoga until late in my 20s. That makes a big difference, too.I try to work on this every day. There is so much distraction, activity, things to *do* that it's easy to lose sight of reality behind all the busyness.But, the contentment I feel when I slow down and really notice is worth it
October 28th, 2011 at 12:04 am
Firstly, can I just say that class sounds like HEAVEN! I've been thinking a lot lately about my own relationship with time – and specifically my impatience towards myself to get everything done as quickly as possible. Case in point: I've only recently committed to a yoga practice – and even that is a loose term as that means I do my best to come to my mat for asanas twice a week and do focused prana work a few times a week – but for some reason I feel I should be looser, stronger, more advanced than I am. The same is true for my blogging – I only started a little over a month ago, and I find myself allowing myself to feel lacking for not putting enough time towards it and not having more readers/followers/etc..What it comes down to for me is this – we choose where we put our energy and thus how we spend our time. So the goal for me is to live in a state of consciousness where I am actively choosing to spend that time doing things I enjoy (yoga, meditating, biking, time with my friends, with my dogs) and less towards things I don't enjoy (mindless activities – for me that's honestly mostly getting too far sucked into the world wide web).
October 28th, 2011 at 1:41 am
I agree with what Zoie says: You truly are an old soul. I like to read books on relativity and quantum physics and string theory . . . sometimes I read whole pages two or three times, trying to wrap my mind around the more complex concepts; my brother teaches physics and I can't always hold my own in conversation with him. But one concept I have grasped is that time is an illusion. That's one of the things underscored by yoga practice and meditation and that you touch on here . . . brave, dear one. Brava.