My partner is a Cornishman. He is a good, kind, honest, hard-working, down to earth and by his own admission, simple chap. I am very lucky in that he is extremely supportive of my yoga practice, runs the household when I abandon everyone for classes and workshops and occupies the girls when I practice at home. So in part this acts also as a thank-you to my Cornishman. Thank you my Sal xx
A few months ago now, we had quite a stressful move, which culminated in us trying to move the contents of a large farmhouse, small farm cottage, many outbuildings, sheds etc into a 3-bedroom terrace. My Mum once said that we humans behave like a gas, however much space we have, we expand to fill it and we had managed to occupy every square foot! We hired a lock-up, made many trips both to it and local Charity shops and the tip. How many of the kids’ school exercise books was it useful to keep? How had we ended up with 4 large tables? And chairs?! Why so many chairs? I sit on the floor! My practice began to suffer. As soon as I got on my mat my mind started to wander, plan and pack. I just couldn’t settle – there was just far too much to do.
When I complained of this to the Cornishman I had half a notion that he would roll out my mat matador style and decree the next two hours sacred yoga time but what he actually said was; ‘No, you haven’t time for your practice today but you can stand up straight now can’t you?’
And there’s the thing. We will never have enough time to practice as much as we would like to, or think we ought to but we can practice what we learn in class all day, every day. There’s not much point in lamenting not getting to class, if we don’t even sit straight at the computer or whilst driving the car? Duty comes before working towards that ‘if only I could pose’. Our children are not small for long, our parents not with us for-ever, and, on a brighter note, moving house doesn’t happen that often!
So, the next time you start to write off your practice or start to feel guilty that you are not doing enough yoga think of the foundation standing pose Tadasana and quite simply, stand well. It doesn’t need a class, a teacher, a mat or more than 5 minutes. Ground your feet, re-connect yourself to the earth, take your shoulders back, lift your breastbone and extend well into the crown of your head, be aware of your breath and keep it strong, slow and steady. You will instantly feel better no matter what else is going on around you.