Child's Pose

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.