A little thread before bed...
Today my yoga instructor talked about the part where it gets challenging...
"Muscles shaking means muscles are building", he said...
I think of it like my body restructuring, reorganizing, finding more power and strength even though first... there's necessary pain.
I've often told my school kids and friends that reading, and writing are like anything else...How do you expect to get better if you don't practice?
This is why yoga practitioners refer to ability as "practice". It is improvement of the body that never stops...is continual.
They say daily yoga strengthens the body, spirit, and mind. There are pictures of elderly people who've done it their whole lives who look like the hands of time barely touched them.
In essence, this is how I see the fight for liberation from all the forces, both those within, and those without, that would diminish our humanity, or that of others.
We are in a continual struggle to improve--to shape the muscles of our all-too-human minds to reject much of what we learn... that is wrong... that is harmful.
Sometimes pain is involved in this restructuring or improvement process, because the brain's "muscle memory" tugs at our subsconscious, controls our actions...especially when we don't want them to.
But my life has shown me the only way to conquer pain, is to pass through it. Ovid said, "Someday this pain will be useful to you," and those of us who've been in the struggle know he (or she) is not wrong.
So I did my best warrior one...adjusted for warrior two...readjusted for reverse warrior, warrior three...all the while--making little adjustments, controlling my breath to match movement.
I know people who spend whole lives in warrior pose...and it's exhausting. So as we choose our stances, remembering to pause, breathe, make adjustments...
I hope we also pause to remember that some pain is a necessary part of the process, and it is the practice of learning to push through pain that helps you grow.
It is a commonly held belief that, "practice makes perfect." Truth is...it doesn't. But...practice builds character, endurance, familiarity with discomfort, and ultimately, strength.
So, friends, model "practice" with the language (and actions) of anti-bias and anti-racism... with the boldness of standing up to pedagogy and politics of oppression.
Before you know it, your breath will come a little easier... your mind will feel stronger, and the way forward will be clearer.
Totally, completely, perhaps obnoxiously zen thread. For this, I do not apologize.😉 Namaste y'all. 🙏🏾 Night.✌🏾💕😴
