Held together

Today taught me that life is lived one moment at a time. I woke up this morning to a mediocre start: we stayed in bed for awhile, which was a nice luxury that I don't afford myself all that often anymore. I was having hip cramps this morning after our hike yesterday, which is probably a sign that I should work more on relaxing my hips while I'm hiking. Now they're awesome, thanks to my great practice this evening. After we got back from lunch with Bwana and I relaxed for awhile, I dutifully sat down and read the rest of the "Introduction" chapter of Iyengar's Light on Yoga. I flipped through the beginning of the Pranayama section of that book, but I think I'm going to take one step at a time instead of filling my head with ideas that I'm not quite ready for yet. Feeling fulfilled yet still longing for more reading, I decided to just plunge in and do my asana practice for the day.

I was having a little trouble when I first started my practice. I got into Tadasana well, but then Vrkasana really through me for a loop. In retrospect, it was probably a matter of lingering stiff hips from yesterday's hike. In any event, I became frustrated when I couldn't get my right foot high enough of my left thigh. Of course, that tensed me up even more and made it even harder. After I forced out 20 seconds on that side to match the fairly effortless time on the other, I paused to think about the futility of the effort I had just expended. Moving on to triangle, I focused on feeling light and still... and it was awesome! After all these years of forcing myself into poses, I found the right way to do them. Subtlety! It's all about subtle movements and stability. Perhaps that won't mean as much to me tomorrow, but right now I feel like something is starting to click.

I will not let myself get thrown off track by being too hard on myself.

but

I will not let myself get thrown off track by being too easy on myself.

Like I read today, the path to yoga is like a razor-thin blade.