Listen to and write down the random yoga thoughts that appear in the midst of the calm after the storm. So many wonderful nuggets of wisdom when the brain is completely open and present like that.
See the next section for my yoga thoughts from this evening… I’m grateful for taking the time to jot them down rather than let them slowly flutter and drift away.
Appreciation:
This evening what kept going through my brain in Final Rest was – be grateful for the test. The opportunity to be tested is an opportunity to grow, to find our strengths, and to make the most difficult of decisions… will we learn from the experiences which put us into the test in the first place and make a change or will we default to what we have always done, the same thing which has gotten us in this position in the first place. The test is an opportunity to prove our growth, to learn and adapt, and to better close the gap between who we are and who we should be.
Being tested is a gift, something we can be grateful for.
Presence:
One of the most presence filled moments today was also in yoga (hmm… kind of a Monday night trend). During our class we were moved into a deep squat with our feet out wide and toes pointed out. We were challenged to get as low as we could while holding our arms out in front of us. As we held that position for what felt like an eternity I dove deeper and deeper into my breath. I felt the ongoing trembles of my legs. As each breath came and went I focused more and more on the burn in my legs, my toes gripping my mat, the sweat running down my face, and my breath, my breath, and my breath. Honestly, I have no idea how long we held that for, but it felt like forever. When we then stood up the release was glorious – until we were told to drop right back down into the deep squat for another couple of breaths. Nonstop presence, felt amazing!
Tired and want to go back to sleep? Suck it up, put on the running shoes, and get after it. You’ll never regret it, you’ll only regret NOT doing it.
Feeling wore out after work and want to sit on the couch? Suck it up, grab your yoga gear, and get to the studio. You’ll never regret it, you’ll only regret NOT doing it.
When in doubt get moving, get some exercise.
Appreciation:
For over 5 years I’ve had the same watch on my left wrist, my Garmin Instinct. It was on sale for $249 and I figured it would be exactly what I needed for the next two or three years before it slowly fell apart and the battery died. Instead this bad boy has been kicking butt and taking names while showing ZERO sings of slowing down. The original battery is still going so strong that I still only charge it once every two weeks or so. This watch is a beast!!!
Over the past 5 years my Garmin Instinct and I have done the following:
20.6 million steps
10,800 total miles
1,124 miles hiked
2,500 miles run
All that use and abuse and there isn’t even a scratch on the face. The only work I’ve done on it is replacing the band.
In a world in which everything seems to be made to be replaced within a couple of years this watch has been one of the best investments I’ve made. Cheers to Garmin for making such an incredibly durable and useful product!!!
Presence:
This moment right here – what a few seconds of awesome.
I’ve already typed about yoga in the Presence section (yessir, I have completely written my blog out of order tonight), but it is really worth mentioning again (or for the first time tonight). Towards the end we were invited to go into Wheel as we were on our backs with our feet planted and hands on either side of our head. The move is to lift our hips up and basically hold ourselves up while arching our back and activating our hips and glutes as our shoulders hold up much of our weight also. As you can guess, this gets pretty tiring, especially after an already strenuous workout.
While in wheel I heard the voice in my head telling me how tired I was, how this was really getting uncomfortable, and how I should just lower myself down early. The second time we did the move the voice was saying the same things. In both cases I told the voice to shut up and I continued to press past the discomfort and stay up until we were instructed to drop. Both times the denial of that voice had me smiling.
Way back when I was helping Dad cut down trees I remember how he used to use a wedge to both help get the tree to fall correctly and help get a chainsaw unstuck. He’d pound that plastic wedge into the cut and then use the leverage to help point the tree a certain way or to take the pressure off the saw blade so he could get cutting again. In either situation this little wedge of plastic had incredible leverage over the massive tree.
One of my favorite books shared the concept of using similar “mental” wedges to help us gain control over our own actions. He said that each time we found a way to push against that voice in our head we were using a wedge to get more and more leverage in our lives. The more we push back against the voice that tells us to quit the deeper we pound the wedge to give us more strength to say no in the future.
Today I smiled as I realized each Wheel was an opportunity to drive the wedge a little deeper, a chance to grow. I made up my mind in both cases that the only way I was going down early was if my muscles literally gave up. I held, I shook, I burned, and I suffered, but I held. One more opportunity to prove to myself that I am stronger than I give myself credit for.
I’m thankful for using a wedge today, it made all the difference!
Appreciation:
Always fun watching the boys do the things they love! Today that involved me watching Gavin at RiverVault doing some pole vaulting purely for fun. While driving him to the meet I couldn’t help but smile when he said he really had no thoughts of hitting a new personal best, he just wanted to enjoy the time vaulting. Mission accomplished!
Not only did he do well vaulting, Gavin also really got into the 4th of July costume contest and won for his session! Always an adventure watching this chucklehead do the things he loves!
Presence:
Yoga tonight was a beast! My brain was initially a bit scattered as class started. Once we were about 12 minutes in my mind was absolutely no where but focused on the task at hand and the position of my body. Joanna had us bending and twisting in so many epic ways that I was dripping with sweat. For reals, at one point the studio was super quiet and all I could hear was the pitter patter of my drops of sweating falling from my arms and face and dripping onto the hardwood floor and my mat. It was intense!
What another profoundly awesome reminder of the power of exercise to keep up going!
Okay, I’m totally breaking from the normal script today. Instead of focusing on Growth, Appreciation, and Presence I’m focused on the awesome yoga practice Becky and I went to at Root Down Yoga. Due to Gavin’s driving lesson tomorrow night we moved our Monday Yoga Date Night to Sunday. Getting that time away for the two of us to share something we love was an incredible way to wrap up the weekend.
All of the teachers at Root Down are outstanding and all have their “normal-ish” practice that they take us through. I appreciate how each one throws out slightly different twists to keep us on our toes from practice to practice. With Jessie leading the class today I had a pretty solid idea of what I was in for, but I was totally mistaken in a really positive way.
When we walked into the studio we had fun talking with Jessie about my trip to Patagonia, something that will be more relevant in a moment. It kicked in some fun travel memories before I got to my mat.
Jessie’s class was totally NOT what I expected at all! She had a different rhythm and cadence that helped me stay focused. There were different poses strung together and my mind had zero chance to wander as all my attention stayed on my breathing and making the appropriate movements. Part way through she switched from leading a series of poses with our left legs after we’d started with the normal right leg starts earlier. Towards the end there was a new position I’d never tried before. By the end I caught myself smiling as I could only imagine what lay ahead!
Throughout the entire class she was her awesomely normal super positive, upbeat, high energy, humorous, and epically supportive self! It was the Jessie who always causes us to enter the studio with a smile of anticipation and leave with an even bigger smile of a great workout and more positive outlook.
That trail had so many similar twists and turns! It started in a cattle pasture, goes up a rocky hill, dips into a freaking rain forest, crosses over blue rivers whenever it feels like it, twists into an old growth forest, kicks into a rocky and almost Hixon Forest in La Crosse feel, turns into a borderline bouldering session, and then switches between sand, rock, and boulders until you make the final climb of well over 1,000′ of elevation gain in less than three quarters of a mile. Did I mention the views of a river valley, massive glaciers, and unreal rock formations throughout? By the end you are rewarded with one of the most spectacular views, a lake separating you from massive 8,000’+ tall sheer granite cliffs. The beginning of the hike gets you smiling at the prospect of the sights in front of you. The next six and a half miles keep you guessing about what is around each corner while you’re level of joy continues to increase. The final view leaves you speechless and in a state of awe. It’s an epic wild ride of joy and awe!
Today’s yoga session led by Jessie was so much like that! We started with smiles, worked along the path and enjoyed all the twists and turns and never knew what would come next, and were then rewarded with an awesome yoga session that increased our already high levels of joy.
Jessie Patagonia – Dude… for reals. That was EPIC today!!! Thank you for not only leading an awesome session, but for bringing back some incredible travel memories!!! You’ve got to start planning your trip to the other side of the world to experience why I’m only calling you Jessie Patagonia moving forward 😉 Thanks for sharing your awesomeness with us today!!!
Yesterday morning I was on an enlightening webinar featuring Dr. Cindra Kamphoff. While there were many notes taken there was one line which stuck in my brain. “Things don’t happen TO you, they happen FOR you.” Let that one sink in for a moment… “Things don’t happen TO you, they happen FOR you.”
With one little phrase the key to reframing our mindset can be changed. The key is to consider how whatever is happening can be used as an opportunity to learn. In many ways it’s a twist on one of my favorite questions, “What can I learn from this?”
Today I had more than a couple of opportunities to practice this. They presented themselves as mild annoyances. Someone driving 20 mph below the speed limit on the interstate a couple of miles from my exit with a line of over a dozen cars behind it. Someone parking in the second to last spot in the lot and parking about six inches over the line and into the last remaining spot. As I type this I know how lame both of those sound and it’s pretty disappointing to admit I was frustrated by both of those moments. I was stuck in the mindset of thinking about how each of those things had happened TO me.
As I was slowly calming my brain down and working back into a good headspace in yoga I could feel the stress fade away. I focused on my breathing and the stretching and all was good in the world. At the end of our practice we moved into final rest, a few moments of complete quiet and stillness, one of my favorite parts of the practice. Complete stillness…
…until someone coughed. Then a sneeze. Then some heavy breathing. The sound of a water bottle being moved. Someone nearby moving a little to adjust themselves. Distracting sound followed by distracting sound, one after another, after another.
As I lay on my back with my eyes closed and a towel over them I almost started to laugh. I could hear Dad’s voice in my head, “how’s the stillness now Mikey?” as he laughed along with me. Each time there was another noise I could feel my body starting to convulse as I fought back deep belly laughter.
While I was not in a deep state of calm and there was noise all around me I chose the right mindset. This was all happening FOR me. What an opportunity to remember how important it is to choose the right mindset, to choose growth over frustration.
One of my favorite quotes from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations was going through my head as I started to laugh quietly during yoga.
“Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been.”
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to practice swapping two words to swap an attitude and opportunities to choose stillness.
Another Monday night yoga practice, another moment of profound insight nestled in the deeply calm state of presence.
The two biggest reasons I love hitting yoga are the physical workout as well as the focused presence. Put those two components together and I’m always grateful for taking the time to get all namaste.
While those two are the headliners there’s an awesome added bonus which sometimes appears when my mind is deep in that state of serenity. Occasionally an idea will hatch during the practice. A little nugget of wisdom worth more than one hundred times it’s weight in gold. A magical moment of clarity and understanding which help me understand some better than before.
Tonight that gem was the realization that when learning and attempting something I’ve never done there is no stress about anything else in life. The act of focused and intentional learning create a state in which there is no concern or anxiety about anything outside the task. If I’ve truly set my soul properly there is also no anxiety in what I am learning, there is only the bliss of play. How wild is that? When I find myself stressing or anxious I need only play a little game with myself – what can I learn from this – to transition from anxiety into calm.
That bonus lesson buried within a yoga practice was yet another example of how much can be gained by pausing the busyness of life and intentionally choosing stillness and presence. As Becky pointed out on Friday, the world would be a much better place if everyone paused for a moment to practice yoga. The entire world would quickly become all namaste.
Another Monday night yoga practice, another moment of profound insight nestled in the deeply calm state of presence.
The two biggest reasons I love hitting yoga are the physical workout as well as the focused presence. Put those two components together and I’m always grateful for taking the time to get all namaste.
While those two are the headliners there’s an awesome added bonus which sometimes appears when my mind is deep in that state of serenity. Occasionally an idea will hatch during the practice. A little nugget of wisdom worth more than one hundred times it’s weight in gold. A magical moment of clarity and understanding which help me understand some better than before.
Tonight that gem was the realization that when learning and attempting something I’ve never done there is no stress about anything else in life. The act of focused and intentional learning create a state in which there is no concern or anxiety about anything outside the task. If I’ve truly set my soul properly there is also no anxiety in what I am learning, there is only the bliss of play. How wild is that? When I find myself stressing or anxious I need only play a little game with myself – what can I learn from this – to transition from anxiety into calm.
That bonus lesson buried within a yoga practice was yet another example of how much can be gained by pausing the busyness of life and intentionally choosing stillness and presence. As Becky pointed out on Friday, the world would be a much better place if everyone paused for a moment to practice yoga. The entire world would quickly become all namaste.
After getting home from being out of town for work for a handful of days I took Monday off. After our morning run early Monday morning (Becky was working so we stayed with our normal time) I took a little nap and then hit yoga at Root Down for the 8:30am yoga class. After getting home tonight Becky and I loaded up and headed out to Root Down for another awesome yoga session.
Yoga, work, yoga, weekend. Kind of has a nice ring to it! I might have to do this again sometime 🙂
Yoga as a tool to center myself before getting back into the swing of things was exactly what my brain needed. My mind was racing with ideas from the days of training as well as with everything I needed to do in order to catch up. By bending, twisting, sweating, and breathing I was able to calm my neurons down and re-focus on the present moment. A profound state fo chill to create space for me to get to work.
Throughout the week I flew at a crazy pace. The days blew past me quickly as they were each filled with very necessary activity from start to stop. Even with Monday off I cruised well beyond 40 hours worked. My mind was still racing as I questioned whether or not I could wrap up in time for yoga. I knew my brain needed it so I wrapped up with creating my task list which will be waiting for me on Monday early morning when I get back to the office.
Yoga as a path to chilling my crazy busy thought processes was the perfect switch to flip to move me from work mode to weekend mode. It pushed me to wrap up and find the end of the page, put the bookmark in, and then move on to some lighter reading. By bending, twisting, sweating, and breathing I was able to relax, reduce the stress, and focus on moving forward on what I want to accomplish at home. It was exactly what I needed.
Ahh… I’m now showered up, full from an awesome dinner, and wrapping up my day with my blog.
There are so many reasons I enjoy yoga tremendously. Throughout the day many of those benefits were in my thoughts. My body was very loose even though I was in the car a lot today. I felt incredibly well rested when I woke up this morning, the workout last night helped my drift off to sleep quickly and deeply. The calm and stillness from the focus of the practice last night rolled right into this morning and has stuck around all day. Those benefits were awesome, but there was another reason I was thankful for yoga last night.
Five simple words which have been turning in my head since the last third of last night’s practice…
Nick, our instructor, was pushing us hard yesterday in a very good way. He kept encouraging us to go just a little further, to hold our breath a little longer, to move into a slightly more difficult position than the one we’d chosen. Long story short, he was helping us find our edge and push right up against it in a highly supportive environment.
At one point after we finished a difficult pose he shared five words he’d learned from a past teacher. When Nick shared the coaching I was completely present, my breathing focused, my mind cleared of any thought other than my breath. He spoke and I listened intently. The words struck me powerfully, such a juxtaposition to the deeply quiet calm I’d slipped into throughout yoga.
Since sharing the words of wisdom they’ve been reverberating in my mind for so many reasons. They seemed to unlock something I’ve been unknowingly struggling with. With those five words in mind I handled several things differently today than I ever would have.
Yoga helped me get to a quiet place in which I was ready to truly hear the coaching and let it sink in completely. One more reasons to love yoga, it helps me quiet my brain and my soul so I can listen completely.
Thankful for Forty 