After the last post, I did go to the mat even though I didn’t want to do that. I had contacted my yoga instructor saying I didn’t want to do anything since the class was canceled. She reminded me (like any good teacher) that even a little practice was better than none.
It reminds me of the messages given by my music teachers throughout the years. They said it was better to practice for 10-15 minutes every day than to do it in one big chunk. What I didn’t understand as a youth was that what those few minutes of practice did was to train muscle memory. It is only through years of playing guitar that I began to understand muscle memory.
Thinking on yoga, we are working with different muscles, but like in the practice of an instrument, we are teaching our body (and mind and spirit) muscle memory. In most instances (for me anyway), the muscle memory that is being learned is that of relaxing muscles. This relaxing into downward dog or keeping the shoulders down in another position is one that empowers us to let stress go from the body.
Tuesday was the day that I didn’t want to practice anything. I was so focused on my grief all I could do was cry. Then, after the teacher said to practice a few minutes, I went to the mat. Doing yoga can be quite challenging with a pet. This time, instead of a cat in my face or a dog licking my face, Birdie decided it was time to play with her yellow tennis ball.
Downward dog looked like play pose to her. She was happy I wanted to play. The beauty in this is that she made me laugh. As I moved to warrior, she thought my propped up knee was for her to stand on and offer me her ball. As I moved to a new position, I did pause to throw the ball. It gave me a chance to move without a little black dog underfoot.
As I stretched out in child’s pose, a tennis ball was dropped between my hands. The sweetness of it melted me into the pose more. I moved into the Box (Cakravākāsana) pose that stretches my shoulders tossing the ball as I changed positions. While stretching, Birdie tried to drop the gift of her ball into my open hand. Again, I laughed and relaxed.
The yoga I practiced may have been more than 15 minutes, but I doubt it. I started out merely going through the motions. Then, the yoga remembered itself in my body. Because of the yoga and the silly dog, the dark mood that had haunted me all day lifted.
YogaBeech and a Black Dog 