Day 3: Let's Get This Right

After taking the prescribed "holidays" in Ashtanga, I wasn't feeling quite motivated to get back on my mat. Not because I was falling out of sorts with my practice, I was just feeling inspired to feed my other interests like guitar and improving my Spanish and working out. I wanted to spend more time delving into other activities. So I took a few more days than usually prescribed. I did start to get down on myself for doing so, but then I remembered that I told myself my goals were simple...to do better than I have been and I'm doing just that.

While it is Thursday, for the first time I actually woke up at 5:35 this morning like I said I would AND got an asana session in BEFORE I went to work, BEFORE I ate breakfast and BEFORE I drank water. Furthermore, I went further in practice than I intended.

When I woke it was in pre-dawn here in Texas and the sky was just starting to light up a bit from the darkness. I haven't seen that in a LONG while and upon seeing it, all I wanted to do was sit on my chair with a cup of hot honey lemon water and watch the sunrise in stillness. The feeling was overwhelming, but instead of rationalizing not getting on my mat, I remembered the promise I made to myself and this challenge and the fact that there was only 3 days left in the week!

Begrudgingly, I cleaned my mat, put on my asana clothes and stepped on with the intention of only doing 5 Surya Namaskar A's, 5 Surya Namaskar B's and the 3 closing asanas. Each salutation was a battle, I took SOOOO many extra breaths it was unreal. At one point, I said to myself, "just do it already" quite feistily I might add. And when I came to Surya Namaskar B's, the battle was definitely on.

Throughout the whole time, I was completing them my mind kept trying to come up with ways to make it easier, faster, to make them just go away and then I realized...THAT'S THE POINT. The only portion of this practice I can control is my breath. The postures are the same no matter, the only thing that I can change is my breath and how hard or fast or slow or steady I breath and that's what can make the asanas more comfortable and in turn more effective. An in instant, if not simultaneously, my breath is symbolic of myself in life.

I can't control what others do. I can't control whether or not the ones I love, family and friends will call when I want, visit when I want or do what I want.While I can control what work I do during the week, I can't currently control what time I go or what work I can and cannot perform when I'm there. The only thing I can control is how I move through the mundane of my life. I can only control my own flow. The same way I can only control the flow of my breath in my practice.

While the dialogue, only lasted for like a millisecond, it stuck with me throughout the day and continued to reverberate through my mind as several drivers cut me off or speeds up to pass me or jumps in front of me with no blinker and the many other things drivers may do to drive me insane.  Instead of getting upset and developing a bad case of road rage, I breathed and changed my typical reaction to one of a calmer nature.

My practice helped me to do that today. My practice taught me a life lesson this morning that made my day that much more pleasant. I'm grateful to my practice and even more so, I 'm grateful to my soul and mind for being open to the lessons it has to teach me.

Did you take asana practice today? Did you learn anything that impacted the rest of your day?