Decide for Yourself
"'Why not cut down the nettles?' he said.
I looked down at the short scythe handle and across the tall nettles.
'It will hurt,' I said. Then he looked at me with half a smile and a little shake of the head.
'You decide for yourself when it will hurt.'"
-Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson
When it hurts it your choice, and so is your definition of pain, suffering, and ache. In the context of yoga, is it pain or is it fatigue? Or stretch? How do we know our bodies enough to delineate the difference?
What hurt means to you is you choice. And by extension when you are hurting. And by extension when you are sad, angry, happy, afraid, unsure. You decide for yourself what you are feeling.
It is not your family's choice. It is not your partner's choice. It is not your friend's choice.
It is your choice whether you feel guilty about eating refined sugar or cooked food. About whether you stayed up late with a close friend and finished half a bottle of wine. If you stayed up late and got less sleep. You decide for yourself. Stop giving that choice away.
It is your choice to use your own power or let the choice of others, or what you assume to be their choice, take power over you. Step into your power. Choose to act, but not be attached to the results of your action.
Stop giving your power away. Decide for yourself when you feel a certain way and be 100% conscious of it. Be a sentient being. It is your choice.
Decide for Yourself
Hold these physically challenging poses for as long as you can. Try to decide, in the pose, what each sensation in your body means and it trying to tell you. Be careful of injury and be careful of distinguishing pain and hurt.
- Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
- 12 Surya Namaskars (see yesterday's post)
- Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I). Hold for 2-3 minutes
- Uttanasana (Forward Fold). Hold for 1-2 minutes
- Repeat step 3 on other side
- Tadasana
- Vrksasana (Tree Pose). Hold for 4-5 minutes. Repeat other side.
- Chaturanga Dandasana (Four Limbed Staff Pose). Hold for 1-2 minutes
- Come onto stomach
- Dhanurasana (Bow Pose). Hold for 30 seconds to a minute. Warm yourself into the full holding with any other back bend preps.
- Chakrasana (Wheel Pose) or Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose). Hold wheel for 1 minute. Hold bridge for 3-4.
- Supta Matsyendrasana (Reclined Twist). Repeat other side
- Savasana