My Morning Remembrances in My New Life

I woke up early this morning with the cool, crisp feeling of new growth, remembrances and positive steps. My laptop automatically began playing calming classical music. Last winter was so chaotic between work and Biology and now the pieces are falling together. I am focussing on concepts such as Wu Wei: The Art of Not Forcing. In my younger days I would hit the floor running and my yoga mat hard with fervor. As my ever changing environment shifts I remember it was the species who adapted to change who survived. It wasn’t always the strongest or fastest that survived. This is one aspect of yoga I always enjoyed: it is vast and diverse. Some teachers taught Power Yoga while others taught Yoga Flow; a more graceful approach rather than focussing on creating flexibility through dynamic, blood-pumping performance it focused more on fluid movements

While it was hard to adapt I now am recognizing I am sharing my Yoga mat with many at various steps. To use Snowboarding as a metaphor I guess I was riding the Double Black Diamond slopes and now I have come down to Lesson Call at the Bunny Slopes. It’s less fun for me but I did enjoy those graceful Yoga classes mixed in with my power yoga classes. There is always something to learn at any level.

I began my morning with some meditations. I saw my mother in her kitchen doing her/our routine business, coffee and planning our days out. She has Water Aerobics on the weekends. She is probably my best student though I was once her student. I remembered her reading a young adult book to me and my little brother called The Door in the Wall. She always taught with the best novels for young adults. She is teaching The Book Thief by Zusak to her public school class now. I picked up the copy she gave me and read the first few chapters. It reminded me of Charles Olson’s Selected Fictions I read for Dr. F_’s class in college. I can only imagine that there is some connection between Dr. F_’s class and the Public School’s choice in literature since our college is known for its Education program in the state we both live in.

I then proceeded to drink a glass of cold water. My friends from college have an Acupuncture Clinic now and they always recommended water before coffee as a cleanse for your system. I smashed up the most perfectly ripe avocado and toasted whole wheat bread for Avocado Toast, himalayan pink salt, crushed red pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. I finished with a banana.

I am reading my Psychology Textbook for Psych 210. We only have to skim the chapters but I always enjoyed nerding-out on my class textbooks even if we are not going to cover the material in class. I always thought that the textbooks and classes were so expensive that I may as well get my money’s worth out of them. It is satisfying to read that I am still in Early Adulthood and will be for another 10 years or so. I was always curious as to why I felt so much older in some circles yet so young, full of virility and still feeling good in my yoga circles. If I were to apply my psychology textbook information to the feeling I would experience what is called my Social Age. When I am in circles concerned with health, exercise, athletics and flexibility namely through yoga I feel my actual age since I have practiced over a decade, snowboarded, kayaked, hiked, swam laps, jumped off high bluffs, spent time in gyms jump-roping, and using the machines according to how my Health & Wellness Professor taught and maintained a healthy diet. However, when I enter circles with a low quality of those attributes I feel old, rigid, my joints tighten and I feel like a sponge rung clean out of fluid. This experience was difficult for me to wrap my mind around for years. I would become angry and begin spouting off about health and wellness, yoga and vegetarian diets. Because I felt taken from. I had invested so many hours into my athletic career and those hours upon hours of dedication would disappear. It is like I have a Health Bank Account I have been making deposits into for years and it feels like someone robs those credits from you. They disappear. The Yogic Journey is similar to a journal of experiences only you have access to. Every hike is documented somewhere, every hour of yoga practice, every walk, every healthy decision, everything you learn as you practice something like snowboarding solely by yourself high up a mountain top is documented inside a secret journal that only you can access. It’s why two snowboarders or two yogis can speak in a language of tacit knowledge that only they can understand. And, so when I entered a group who never wrote in that journal or only limited amounts it’s like speaking a foreign language when you try to communicate. So, I just speak the basics. Health, yoga and exercise: The Bunny Slopes; until I find my flock of Double Black Diamonds again and we can ride like music down the alpine. Or synchronize our mats and yogic journeys together speaking to each other in a language of interpretive dance like birds flitting and strutting happily alongside someone similar for a time until we have to fly away again.

Last updated January 16, 2024