Its not Monday and you are still having a tough time getting out of bed. You are tired even though you think you are getting enough sleep. You are eating right and exercising consistently, but something isn't exactly right.
I have had the opportunity to take yoga classes with some teachers that I respect a great deal both as teachers and as yogis. These teachers have trained for years in not only Hatha yoga, or the postures and movement we commonly know as yoga, but also in exercises of the breath and the mind including self-restraint and meditation. They radiate peace and contentment and serve as sources of inspiration for their students.
As students we tend to see these yogis as perfect, as the end game. However they all seem to agree on the fact that even at an advanced state of their practice they are not left in an unwavering state of peace, and that they sometimes still 'fall off the horse' or go through difficult periods in their lives. The difference that years of yoga has made is that it just doesn't take them as long 'to get back on.' The world will still throw us off our horse. We will still experience pain, loss and suffering but we do yoga in order to have the mental and spiritual resiliency to come back to a place of contentment quicker and with fewer bruises.
So, we cannot expect to be free of low points. We just have to learn how to be present with these moments and patient with ourselves. Our yoga practice (or whatever it is you do to exercise your mind, body and spirit) is there to leave us better equipped to handle all kinds of challenges.
P.S. I realized that this post started out sounding like a Prozac commercial... woops... my real intention couldn't be farther from that.
I have had the opportunity to take yoga classes with some teachers that I respect a great deal both as teachers and as yogis. These teachers have trained for years in not only Hatha yoga, or the postures and movement we commonly know as yoga, but also in exercises of the breath and the mind including self-restraint and meditation. They radiate peace and contentment and serve as sources of inspiration for their students.
As students we tend to see these yogis as perfect, as the end game. However they all seem to agree on the fact that even at an advanced state of their practice they are not left in an unwavering state of peace, and that they sometimes still 'fall off the horse' or go through difficult periods in their lives. The difference that years of yoga has made is that it just doesn't take them as long 'to get back on.' The world will still throw us off our horse. We will still experience pain, loss and suffering but we do yoga in order to have the mental and spiritual resiliency to come back to a place of contentment quicker and with fewer bruises.
So, we cannot expect to be free of low points. We just have to learn how to be present with these moments and patient with ourselves. Our yoga practice (or whatever it is you do to exercise your mind, body and spirit) is there to leave us better equipped to handle all kinds of challenges.
P.S. I realized that this post started out sounding like a Prozac commercial... woops... my real intention couldn't be farther from that.
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