Middle Way YOGA

How many of us miss yoga class because we are too busy? Or so we tell ourselves. Can we really not take time out for ourselves to attend one 90 minute session of yoga a week? As much as I sometimes feel I should be at home working, I have designated Tuesdays as my mental health day. This is the day of the week that I get to attend yoga and go to coffee with friends afterward. If it weren't for Tuesdays, the only other adult I would see during the week is my husband (okay, excluding Thursday nights). The only conversation I would have during the days, intelligent or otherwise, is with my son, who is 11. The rest of the time I am shut away in my studio, alone. I like my studio time, but come on--a woman's got to have some balance in her life.

I have come to value my Tuesdays, and I have come to value my yoga sessions, not only for the community I have become a part of, but for the woman who guides us through our sessions. Cindy is ever-gentle, non-judgemental, welcoming, kind and caring, and community-conscious. When my son was sick last year and being home schooled, I dragged him along to yoga class. It was difficult for me at first; yoga was supposed to be my time. I worried he was annoying the other students with his yoga antics, who, afterall, were paying to be interrupted by my son. But Cindy didn't see it that way. She was happy to have him in class, and whenever he wanted to show a "new yoga pose" he had made up, she always figured out a way to incorporate it into the practice. Through her I learned to accept my son's presence in class, through her I learned patience. Now I welcome my son into my Thursday night class. I think we all appreciate his yoga postures, which actually work welll with class most of the time and are often challenging, and he is always willing to pass out eye pillows or pick up bolsters and blocks after class. For him, yoga is part of our lives now, and he doesn't question this.

Yoga is changing my life; yoga is changing the way I live, the way I relate to my husband, the manner in which I try to comfort my son when he is in need of it, and the way I treat myself. They are all changes for the better. In a very personal way, my life has never been more exciting. I look forward to deepening my own practice, to having more opportunities to meditate and to reap the benefits of my discipline. Amazingly, my family has begun to follow my example. My husband now practices yoga with me on Thursday nights, looks forward to it as welcome relief from the stress of work. My son uses breathing techniques whenever he has to go through unpleasant procedures at the hospital.

I am not a religious person, but I realized recently that I would like to pass on a spirituality to my son that will be a comfort and a guide to him in life. Yoga is helping me to do that. As I learn more, I am able to help my son discover strength and comfort within himself--that is, within God, that three letter word that has always confounded me. For now I will accept that within each of us is the Divine, without asking for more explanation than that. Is that not the very definition of faith?

Namaste.