My regular readers will be very happy to know that I continue to keep my lack of motivation, discussed last time, at bay. I even made it to a spin class this week at the Y and have the sore legs to prove it. Today, Trish and I got up and out early to make the 8:00 Stretch and Balance class. Nothing could be less intimidating than this class. It is an hour of long stretches, a bit of core work, and a bit of balance work. Consider it pre-yoga. And, yes, it is focused on those of us of a certain age who might consider real yoga “a bit much”. As we were going through the class today, I paid attention to where my mind wandered. It occurred to me that “Stretch and Balance” is a fabulous metaphor for life. I’ll take you through the class and explain what I mean.
Let’s start with the fact that we got there. Woody Allen once said, “80% of life is just showing up.” We all know how true that is. My motivation issue was driven almost entirely by a need to just get started. Basic physics. Getting over inertia. That’s why experts on “getting things done” tend to recommend breaking a big task down into smaller chunks. That lowers the activation barrier and improves the probability that you will overcome inertia and get started. Once you get started, things flow.
The class begins with a focus on the breath and some short meditation. There is a story I remember hearing that I think is attributed to Einstein but I can’t find a reference for it. This person (let’s say it was Einstein) had a daily half hour meditation practice. It’s how he started his day. Upon hearing about how busy his schedule was going to be the next day, Einstein said something like, “Well, I’m going to need to meditate twice as long tomorrow morning.” There is a general feeling that meditation is a luxury. It’s something you do when you have the time to devote to it. The reality is that meditation is something you should do to create mental space for everything else in your life. I have not been successful at making a daily meditation practice a priority. Yet every time I do it—and the start of the Stretch and Balance class is a good example—I find myself incredibly grounded and with greater capacity to handle whatever is in front of me that day. The instructor also asks us to set an intention for the day, like “clarity” or “focus” or “peace” or whatever pops into your head. I almost always land on “focus”. Those who have worked with me over the years and suffered with my short attention span understand why that is important.
We move next into really gentle movements. We sweep our arms up overhead as we inhale, then sweep down as we exhale. We’ll hold our arms in “goal post” position and gently twist to the right and then to the left. We’ll drop our right ear to our right shoulder then our left ear to our left shoulder. These beginning movements are slow and almost seem like they aren’t doing anything. But we are focused on timing our breathing with the movements, which allows us to stretch longer and deeper as the class proceeds. I noticed today that when we did the “goal post twist” at the end of the class, I was able to twist so much further! That meant my muscles were cold and tight at the beginning. Those slow, gentle stretches started the warm up process and without them I probably would have hurt myself. How many times in life have I jumped into something new (a new job, a new project, a new activity, a new relationship) and just took off without doing those metaphorical gentle stretches first? Taking the time to mentally connect your breathing to the new movements of whatever you are taking on allows you to see what’s ahead of you more clearly. And seeing what is ahead of you more clearly dramatically improves your chances of success.
As the class goes on, we move into deeper and longer stretches. I particularly appreciate the “hip opening” exercises because my hips are always so tight. I wrote before about the need to push outside of your comfort zone and used stretching of muscles as an analogy. I’m always amazed at how quickly my hips tighten up when I’ve missed a few classes. Similarly, if you don’t stretch yourself out of your comfort zone, you’ll find yourself more hesitant and fearful of trying new things. Or you stop doing things that used to be easy and natural for you when you were doing them regularly (like driving on the highway or public speaking). You’ve got to stretch!
Even though we move gently from pose to pose, all of a sudden, I noticed that I was shaking a little and I could hear the quiet (or not so quiet) grunts of strain from my classmates. This usually starts when I’ve been in downward dog awhile and my shoulders are starting to fatigue, and accelerates when we transition from downward dog to a plank. I felt it again when we moved into balancing core moves that involved keeping my legs extended and above the mat. Funny how those gradual transitions suddenly catch up to you and you find yourself struggling a bit. You want to drop the pose and get relief. Just when you need to hear it, though, the instructor tells you to breathe into it and reminds you of the importance of a strong core. How many times in my life has a steadying voice come to support me just when I was about to crack? I think back to when friends or mentors or sometimes even strangers have appeared in my life with just the right words at just the right time to get me to focus on why I was doing what I was doing, instead of keying in on my discomfort. I really value the times I have been able to be that steadying influence on others. That’s why I have always loved teaching and coaching. The opportunity to give someone the nudge to return to a healthier, more productive focus is a gift to me.
Speaking of “nudges”, let’s talk about the balance portion of the class. These are predominantly standing movements on one leg (like tree pose) that involve additional movements to confuse your brain. Sometimes for good measure we close our eyes. No one gets through the balance exercises without falling out of the poses multiple times to catch themselves. And that is a GOOD thing. The goal is not to be rock solid in these poses. Our instructor reminds us that you only improve your balance skills if you are forced out of balance 25% of the time. If you are not challenging yourself enough to fail 25% of the time, you are not going to improve. There are a zillion life lessons wrapped up in that one statement. First, of course, is the importance of “failure”. Second is the importance of learning and improving from failure, not beating yourself up over it. Third is the recognition that balance is rarely a steady state. Balance involves gentle but constant nudges and adjustments. I have used the concept of a pendulum before in discussing balance, instead of a set of scales, for exactly this reason. Balance (in all things) requires constant attention and constant adjustment. Getting out of balance occasionally is just an opportunity to get better at getting back into balance again. Embrace it.
We end the class with a short meditation again, lying flat on our backs. I love this part. My muscles are all warm and tingling a bit. My mental state is calm yet really focused. I feel like I could take on anything! So, yes, “stretch and balance” is a darn good philosophy as well as a good physical activity. Challenge yourself on that—every day.