I could really get going about this topic so I'll try and keep it blog-short. I think people need to rest during the day.
So yesterday this little guy comes up to me after yoga during gym class. He's 11. He tells me, "yoga makes me tired and now I have to go to soccer and I'm too tired." "Dude, yoga does not make you tired. You're tired. Can you have a nap when you get home?" "No, I've got to walk the dog and then I'm at soccer practice." "Okay, try blocking your left nostril, breathe through your right one for a bit and off you go." The guy is scheduled from the time he gets up until 10 pm when he finally gets to lie down again.
People, if you lie down and you feel tired, it's not the lying down that makes you tired. You're freaking tired. Lying down and pausing for a moment reveals to you all sorts of things. Sometimes it can alert you to the fact that you're overworked, super-scheduled, and eventually you will be stressed out and just may get sick or punch somebody or whatever other stressed-out expression people come up with.
My daughter and some friends came up with a plan that would let them have a nap after lunch. It didn't get off the ground. No support from the school. It takes too much work to find a way to kids to lie down. I realize it would be a logistical nightmare if everyone got to lie down for a bit during the day. But we're living in the alternative.
I'm sure that the pendulum was once way over on the other side and we were a bunch of lazy-bums long, long ago. We're not anymore. We're hyper-productive. Or at least we're scheduled that way. We're armies of workers ready to go. Sending ourselves off into battle everyday. We've been brainwashed or "culturally supported" let's say, in the habit of disregarding the body and the spirit, for that matter. And it starts out really young. We're not even out of elementary school before we're stretched to the limit, and not in a good way. Stretch and release is yoga. I don't see the release, the rest, that allows the circulation to return to normal. I see stretch, stretch, stretch, and then collapse.
6 comments:
So very, very true. I'm going to have a conversation with Elijah, my 10 year old about this topic. Perhaps he'll give me some insights from inside the classroom/school yard...
And as for myself... I think this is why I feel just so lucky to have the job that I do. And why I'm really not rushing to expand my hours to those of my counterparts.
Thanks for the reminder, Jamine.
My lifestyle lets me have naps too, so I'm good with that! I remember a friend of a friend saying something years ago that stuck with me - "I'm at a point in my life where if I feel a nap attack coming on, I take it." She had her life organized so she could, too.
Jamine, couldn't agree more... the hugest life change I've had lately is to switch to a slower life, I take time off and do less things and focus more on them. Feels great.
On another note, I didn't get a chance to comment, but I found your posts on hot yoga really interesting. You know hot yoga classes -bikram- are the only ones I have managed to have an ongoing yoga practice with? Since it's more extreme, it helps my wandering mind to settle more, like if I don't breath I will collapse, so I do it. I find it much harder to focus on non-hot yoga. What's your take on this?
Thanks for reminding us that it's great to slow down. I forget too and get wrapped up in what I'm doing.
As for Hot Yoga Cristina, I think it's a great workout. I just don't think that yoga would have us waste resources to practice. It's like adding more excess, more complications, and I think yoga is about simplifying and having less "stuff."
So I think it's great that you've found something - me too - but I don't think it's necessarily a yoga practice is all. Keep it up!
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