In my earlier years of practicing yoga, I always thought that starting in child's pose was wrong as I thought of it as something that had to be earned.
Earned by doing the hard work, creating the shaking limbs, the prickly heat traveling down the spine and heating up the back.
I don't think this way anymore.
Learning to start the practice in extended child's pose, which is both a stretch and a surrender, was very important for me because it was a dawning.
Sometimes, the surrender is the hard work.
Sometimes we need to stretch ourselves to reach the place that says this is too much
or
I need to slow down
or
I need to admit some truths
or
I need to just go low
low
low
with only me
and my breath
and my forehead as firmly pressed onto the ground
as my knees
and my toes
and my palms.
Sometimes our hardest work is the restorative work.
Sometimes what it takes for us to stop all that we are doing requires so much more strength than the
go
go
go of our lives which just strips us of our energy.
It might not be 10,000 steps a day
or
it might not be a two minute plank
or
a from scratch meal
or
attending every meeting
or
saying yes to every plan
or
saying yes every time you are asked if you are OK.
What it ends up being is our humbly realizing that we need to be understanding of ourselves
and of our bodies
and of our brains
and of our thoughts
and of our hearts.
We need to be understanding what a real,
deep breath
can do to start healing the places
within us all
that we allow the outside world to
berate
and
consume.
