Or, How To Slow Down To Get Where You’re Going
Yoga is not what I would call my natural habitat. Or it didn’t used to be. Like any good, middle-class, city-dwelling woman in the 90s and Aughts, I did it. I had the Rodney Yee videos (why couldn’t he wear normal shorts?). I went to the occasional class. I listened and rolled my (closed) eyes when the instructor said, “Imagine a lotus blooming at the crown of your head.” Sure, lady. Totally imagining that very thing right now.
About 4 years ago, however, some knee issues from running put me in PT, and I had to find something I could do in the meantime. As luck would have it, a yoga studio opened not far from my house, and off I went to try to make the best of the crap sandwich my IT band had handed me. It turns out that, as we get older, the brief 5-minute (or no-minute) post-workout stretch just doesn’t cut it. If I wanted to keep running, then my IT band (and hamstrings and quads) were going to demand more attention than simply miles and miles of getting pounded to a shortened length each week. Also, my glutes were non-existent. But that’s a post for another day.
What’s great about my yoga studio is that they turn the lights off. I don’t have to look at anyone, and they don’t have to look at me. Even though they sometimes encourage introducing yourself to your neighbor (note to the yoga studio: I am there to relax and renew, not to ramp up my social anxiety), you’re generally left alone if you want to be.
As I started to go consistently, 1-2 times a week, I realized I was using my breath to de-stress, even “off the mat,” as they say. I also realized that really difficult poses, like Warrior 3, were going to be impossible if I didn’t slow down and make my progress gradual.
And you know what? That helped me reconcile my own recovery and comeback from the IT band/knee pain. Slow and steady, as Marge Simpson once said, really does win the race. You can go careening, headlong in to things you want, or want to make happen. More often than not, though, the best things in life don’t happen immediately. They come from a place of cultivation. Yoga may not be for everyone in the moment, but it becomes something for anyone, if you’re willing to slow down and let it become you.