870 days sober: The Daily Minimum
Do you know what my yoga practice requires outside of myself? Nothing.
All it requires is for me to breathe, gaze and move.
No teacher required. No mat. Just me.
Physically it is as intense or as playful as you allow it to be. Mentally just stepping on your mat can be a battle.
My practice as been sparse over the last few weeks. I’d like to say work travel and injury were the root cause. I have a feeling it has more to do with my tendency, if left to my own devices, to run away from anything that is good for me.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so disconnected from this practice that has helped heal me. I haven’t been to Balance, my refuge, in days.
You would think after 5 years of proof, this wouldn’t be the case, but the tendency is still there — a constant background tug telling me I am not good enough to be this well and happy, that I am not a priority.
In Ashtanga, or at least in my Ashtanga community, we have a concept of daily minimum. Our practices can take well over 1.5 hours and the ebbs and flows of life do not always allow a full practice. To keep up the discipline it is recommended to do a daily minimum: Three sun salutations A, 3 sun salutations B, yoga mudra, padmasana, utplutih, and shavasana.
All in all it would take about 15 minutes. Who doesn’t have 15 minutes to do basic maintenance for themselves?
But when I step on my mat in my hotel room or in my apartment, a thousand thoughts distract. A work email here. A sip of coffee is needed. The last sun salutations feels like it can simply be skipped.
I mean what’s the difference between two or three?
The difference is building strength in battling the negative tendencies of your own mind. The difference is valuing yourself enough to take just another 30 seconds of time to keep a commitment to yourself.
Today I went through the motions of my daily minimum. It felt like it was a must. It was not graceful. It was not focused. What could only take 15 minutes took almost 30?