Ain’t got time to bleed

You said yogis don’t bleed?  We practice and sweat and work ourselves to the bone (sometimes).

Today I opened up some old wounds, literally – the physical kind, not the psychological – and bled on my mat.  I can honestly say in over 13 years as a yogi, I have never done that. Not even from a nose bleed.  I think I’ve made it through some sort of right of passage.

Don’t judge me.

Tell me your best yogi-injury stories below. 

Sidenote: While searching for a photo for this post, because the one I took of my butchered elbow just didn’t work, I found this one. Who would have thought they’d have luxury bandaids? Oh. My.

Rhymes with mascara

I’m the first to admit I’m not perfect (see the title of this blog).  I have my own idiosyncrasies, bad tendencies, and vices.   My saṃskāras show themselves in full force when I’m off guard or when my practice has taken a trip to Vegas and forgotten to leave me a ticket.

What the heck are saṃskāras?  Saṃskāras – three syllables, rhymes with mascara – are our emotional and mental patterns, those little, or not so little, bad habits that pop up when things get tough or when we’re taken out of our comfort zone.   Sometimes they manifest themselves through our actions, for example eating a tub of ice cream while watching a marathon of home design shows, or as physical stress or self-deprecating thoughts.  In more serious situations the lack of an ability to cope with our mental patterns can lead to serious addictions.   For me, my emotional habit is to send myself into panic mode where I feel the need to vent my frustrations and “get it all out”.   Facebook is a perfectly good avenue for this, right??

Yoga nerd alert: Yoga Sutra (II.16) states, Heyam duhkham anagatam, or “Future suffering is to be avoided.”

I joke the best way to nip these saṃskāras in the bud is to drink your weight in wine.  I’m not sure this is what was meant by Sutra II.16; I’ve felt the wrath of a post future-suffering-busting wine binge.  Suffering often begets more suffering.

A much healthier, mature way of breaking our tendencies is to 1) become aware of them (others are really good at helping with this, just ask your spouse), 2) let go of your attachment to them, ask yourself, “Are they really helping me?”, and finally 3) break your habits by creating new positive tendencies, “When this happens, I’m going to do this instead of that.”

Keep it up and you’ll soon find you’re feeling a whole lot better and enjoying some serious emotional growth.

Sidenote: When I Googled saṃskāras while looking for an appropriate image for this post, I found this:

http://creativebinge.co.uk/blog/samskara/

Apparently funk can help too.

Fearless – NOT!

I’m a chicken. Bok. Bok.

Whether it’s nailing a handstand or swimming across the cove on a recent trip to San Diego, I’m a chicken. Not even my super-duper brand new swim goggles could motivate me to do the later. In my defense, the water was only 57 degrees Fahrenheit and as I’m sure you know, the human body freezes somewhere around 58 degrees Fahrenheit.

I’m not sure where I picked up this tendency to fear my own shadow. Maybe it’s a deep-seeded inclination towards self-preservation; maybe it’s because I’ve lived my life in a bubble. I’m not sure, but that’s not important. The important thing is, I get nervous if I flick a light switch and the lights go off before I get to bed. Which is almost all of the time.

I know logically, the fear is all in my head. There was nothing out there in that cove that could hurt me and I’m not going to break my neck if I fall out of a handstand. Mind over matter will be my new mantra, whether it’s sticking an inversion or swimming the English Chanel or just crosing the road. Bok. Bok.

(What are you afraid of and how is it holding you back from your goals?)

I’m imperfect…so what?

I eat french fries, drink coffee, and swear, sometimes all on the same day. Oh, and I’m a yoga instructor.

Don’t judge me.

~ K