“I don’t take the bus anymore. My arthritic knee makes it hard for me to get in and out,” the woman across from us said in a loud voice to the waitress serving her.
I could tell she was a regular. The conversation was casual and familiar. The woman went on listing some of her ailments. The waitress kindly listened.
Two tables away from her, I wondered at what point in the woman’s life had she began to see her body as ailing and old? I thought of this because I’m in my 50’s and she was probably in her early 70’s. My body, just like hers and yours, might I add, is aging as well. I feel aches I did not have before. Will I inevitably start creating litanies of aches to share with people?
And then I remembered the old and quite trippy Funkadelic song, “Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow” and this morning’s yoga practice and how achy and good my whole body felt as I sat eating shashimi. I thought about the work Maribel and I do with you and realized that the primary work we are about is not really about the body, but about the mind. (Maybe we should have called ourselves Miami Firm Mind? No!)
At one point in time, the woman two tables down began making lists of ailments, things gone wrong with her body. And although I see absolutely nothing wrong with her list, I realize that her perspective is not purely biological; it’s mental. Her pains are real but the stories and lists she makes about her sensations are optional. The lists have something to do with the kind of training she has provided herself not just now that she is older but way before, in her youth.
I was grateful for catching the bit of conversation I did. It made me think about what kind of practice I want for myself and how fortunate I am right now to be able to practice before it is too late for change. Maybe I’ll end up making lists just like hers, but I will try not to. I want to be as list free as I can.
Much of what I have understood about yoga in the past couple of years is that the practice is really about noticing and noting the habitual mental and physical patterns that limit me, and that the way to work with those patterns is primarily through noticing and working with the breath while engaging in very patient movements that help me back into myself rather than away.
Yoga is about reincarnation, not in some distant future but right now. Every practice is an invitation to re-incarnate, to become more fully aware of the wonder of the relationship between mind and body, matter and spirit. I’ve seen how many times a challenging pose breaks open and becomes accessible not through forcing myself through but as a result of noticing the habitual movement pattern in my body that I had not questioned before. These little breakthroughs often translate in me realizing some habitual throught pattern in other areas of life.
Many times when speaking with people about food and exercise, what Maribel and I see are people with a desire for something healthier and better for themselves but with an inability to develop sustained change. The problem in many cases is that the plan for change these folks have often engaged in was often one that has been forced and formulaic: stop eating this, eat that, lift some weights, do more cardio. Seldom does anyone go back into the stories that are the framework for the weight gain and overall lack of health and seldom does the person find ways to reset his nervous system in order to become less reactive and more in control of the mind and thoughts.
Transforming one’s mind is no easy feat. It does not happen over night or even over a year’s time. Instead, transformation is moment by moment. It is a daily patient practice that requires not just knowledge but ultimately wisdom and persistence. It also happens more easily in a supportive community rather than alone.
“Sometimes we need a story more than food to stay alive,” Barry Lopez writes in Crow and Weasel. Taking time to work with our stories, to notice them and drop the ones that no longer serve us is the beginning of any real change and the essence of the strong work we are trying to do. “The mind is a terrible thing to waste,” went the old UNCF television commercial. Now is a good time to free the mind because if we do, you know what will follow!
If this message resonates with you in anyway, let us know. Talk with us when we see each other for training or yoga. Sometimes we need a little loving nudge to break away from the familiar spaces we inhabit in order to remind ourselves that if we free our minds, our asses will surely follow.
