Dealing With It - Yoga Style

In the last few weeks, I have ventured into the new (and sometimes slightly painful) world of yoga.  I know that no matter what soreness I might experience the next day, I find myself looking forward to the time to stretch and hold the poses, breathe and relax while focusing on tensing specific muscles. 

At the end of this last class, we were in our normal relaxation time, but with my rear firmly planted against the corner of the wall and floor, my legs were stretched up the wall.  Letting me legs stretch out to the sides in a V, my muscles initially resisted.  I think there may have been some discussion of mutiny going on in those muscles.  Given time, letting gravity and breathing slowly relax the muscles, the stretch was deepened. 

If I had tried to force that stretch, I would really be hurting and potentially do some muscle damage.  If I didn’t relax into the stretch and let the muscles slowly relax, I wouldn’t achieve that looser muscle feel I was going for. I needed to just let it keep at it, while giving it some time. 

We all have issues we need to deal with, things that stretch us beyond what is comfortable.  We have to deal with them to be able to move on and face the future.  Yet, we cannot always just force ourselves to fully “deal with” something in a particular moment either.  It seems, at least for me, that it comes more in fits and starts.  There is no movement, and then a bit, a centimeter more, then another and another.  Perhaps even plateauing a bit, before being ready to resume; teaching us patience.

Yoga may be working on my core muscles and flexibility.  It is also reminding me that dealing with those tight muscles takes time and effort – so does life.  

Mouse House

   New insurance cards came, and one goes in my wallet – the other goes in the glove compartment. I open the door and there is a rounded mound of white material, shredded and crumpled in the left hand corner of the space. A mouse house! A mouse house in my car? Close the glove compartment door quickly! I double checked it was really closed and then thought about evacuating the vehicle. Alarms were going off, sirens, “This is not a test!” Okay, maybe that was only happening in my head, but it was perfectly real there, believe me. Every time my pant leg would move across my foot on my drive to work I would squirm. Eww!!!! There is a mouse house in my car, what do I do now? Needless to say, the mouse house (a pile of shredded napkins) fluffed and arranged was removed via fireplace tongs, thick gloves, a trash bag, and morale support from the dogs.

   I didn’t, and don’t like the thought of a mouse in my car, unless it sings and dances or cooks. But, it had to be taken care of. Sometimes there are mouse houses in our lives, the metaphorical kind. Those have to be taken care of too. It may require gloves and fireplace tongs, and trashbags – but needs to be removed. It may be a poor habit or choices or lack thereof. Sometimes there are mouse houses, and well – they just have to go!

Under the Rug

I am familiar with the expression “Sweep it under the rug.” In other words, just remove it from sight and hopefully whatever IT is, IT will take care of itself, die a natural death, and dissolve from being under the rug. Whatever rug these people have must be pretty impressive. If I sweep something under the rug, all it does is create a little bulge in the floor. They must have a different kind of rug. If I continue to sweet things under the rug, I will have a little bulge and then a bigger bump, until it is big enough to catch my toe on and fall. Eventually, it will look like a beach ball is under there, and that just doesn’t look right at all and will make the rug fall funny on the floor.

Instead of sweeping things under the rug, where they will be tripped on later – because they do not take care of themselves, die a natural death, and dissolve, these things must be dealt with and either put way or removed. It is not always an easy thing. To the contrary, it is often uncomfortable. However, after the first anxious minutes have passed, it is often my experience to grow more comfortable. Soon, even some nervous laughter may be heard.
Don’t sweep it under the rug. Take the rug outside and give it a good dusting.

Sinkholes

It was a giant hole! I mean a giant hole in the road! Heading to work, I generally drive over that spot at least once or maybe twice a day and now there is a giant hole there. We have had so much rain that there must have been some sort of a sink hole formed. And I mean deep and big! There were two guys working in it, and all I could see was the top of their hats.

Besides being slightly discomfiting, knowing I drive over this spot, it made me think about the way these holes are made. For some reason, I just couldn’t wrap my brain around how this worked, so I asked my dad to fill me in. He explained how small pieces of the dirt were washed away bit by bit with the ground water. Eventually, there was a chasm under the ground formed and when it reached close enough to the surface, the road fell in.
I may not be much for mechanical thinking (the thingy that connects to the other thingy and makes that stuff run is my idea of a technical answer), but my brain related it to life. How often do we have little bits and pieces washed away until there is a hole right under the surface? And then ca-boom, the road that we have traveled over so often. I can think of how this could be a negative thing, something that we haven’t dealt with eats away at us until we find ourselves standing in a hole, wondering what happened. I can also think of how it is an opportunity as well. I mean, think of the potential pot holes that we need to fix so that we don’t have to be standing in the bottom of a gigantic car eating hole!
So, then I thought about pot holes in my life. I wonder if I have ground water of a different kind seeping through and I need to deal with it. Perhaps we all do.