Rolling Away Tools
In yoga, when you get to the hip work part of class, your mind tends to wander. It is a pretty cool thing that your body does. You can be going along, well into a class, loose and warm, totally focused and clear headed and all of a sudden you move into some serious hip stretch and boom, your mind floods with all sorts of nonsense that you have worked hard all hour to vanquish. Everyone thinks you store stress in your neck and back but really is it all in your hips. And sometimes one hip is less cooperative than the other. My right one generally pushes me out of more poses than my left. My teacher says that is the male side. She always raises her eyebrows at me wondering just what kind of man issues I may be having.
And even though falling out of a normally easy pose because of a burning hip is not the most graceful thing to do it is also what is best about yoga. You lose your mind in the practice. You let go and you center on the long breaths and glorious stretches and the challenge of each pose and doing it just one tiny bit better, until the hips come and all of a sudden I am very clearly reminded of the thing that is getting me, the thing that I have to get rid of because obviously I am storing it and I shouldn’t be. My burning hip forces me stop and just let whatever it is roll away.
Yoga is in my tool kit-I practice regularly and lean hard when things get rough. It is one of the things that after a long hard week or two, emotionally and physically, I turn to for relief. It is similar to a long outside run or walk or a old fashioned marathon session with a pencil and a notebook. All those things clear me, they take me away, give me an aerial view and then gently drop me back into myself, newly lucid and ready to move forward. So this week there has been serious mat time with lots of hip enlightenment, extra outside miles and some time getting what is in my head onto paper. I am pretty sure a little extra tool time has helped roll away a lot and that my right hip won’t be so obstinate later this week. I am pretty sure that my tools and I almost have me back in order and ready for the next thing.
