The older we get, the less we experience truly new things. I really started contemplating this the year I turned 30. I was dating this guy who did all kinds of cool stuff, and I was like, I want to do that too. I started with trying to learn how to roller blade. When the weather is good in Seattle, not being outside enjoying it is anxiety inducing. So great, rollerblading, another good reason to get out and enjoy some elusive sunshine. All I'll say about my foray into rollerblading is that I'm glad REI has such a generous return policy.
Moving on to winter. Because one needs incentive to get out the other 9 months a year in the Pacific Northwest.... enter snowboarding. The first time I strapped the board to my feet, I pretty much instantly fell over. Falling on snow does hurt the knees and tailbone a bit, but it's much more forgiving than pavement. And frankly, seems way cooler than rollerblading. There's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to learning how to ride, but then there's that moment when it clicks. I'm surfing this mountain, and it feels awesome, we are one. I get it, I can do it. It's brand new, and exciting, and I've never felt this before, and I'm 30 years old. Something genuinely new. It's quite invigorating. Since this little epiphany, I've done more to seek out new experiences. Of course there's traveling and seeing new places, which is always fresh and exciting, but somehow it's not the same. Perhaps it's that a new landscape doesn't always translate into doing something new.
I've long practiced yoga. It has surely been mentioned that I started my yoga journey with Bikram, and this long before the "something new after 30 quest". Eventually I was forced to move on to other practices since I lived on a tropical island and Bikram was not available there. In my quest for more yoga I discovered
yoga glo (this is a great website with tons of classes taught by world class teachers). I thought "I'll try this level 2/3 class with Dice Ida Klein." About 3.6 minutes in I was just watching the class video. I had no idea what was going on, and I could not hang- quite literally. Inversions, arm balances, even just jumping back into chaturanga (and say what? that also involves a handstand?!?). It was all new. I could not imagine myself ever doing these things, but I was inspired. Now it almost pains me to hear people say this. "I'll never be able to do that." Well, not if you keep telling yourself that, fool.
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| I never imagined this was possible. Good thing someone else knew it was (and told me) Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana or One Foot or Leg King Pigeon. |
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Fast forward one year from my first Dice class- now nearly 4 years into the quest for new experiences. I find myself participating in an amazing yoga teacher training through
Frog Lotus Yoga's international "division". (Please check them out if you've considered a YTT, and use my name for a discount- I have to contact them on your behalf for the discount. Feel free to email me if you have questions regarding the trainings, I'd be happy to share my experiences.) One thing our fearless leader often said was, don't think about it, just envision yourself doing it, and go. And more often than not, I went. I dropped back into wheel. I picked myself up from wheel. I jumped back from bakasana to chauturanga. And that was revolutionary. That's when I really started to tap into this mental power. I got this.
Continuing a teacher training assignment, I always have 3 postures I'm working on. I've been working on handstand (Adho Mukha Vriksasana) and forearm balance (Pincha Mayurasana) basically since that teacher training, so 6 months now. (I've had the 3rd posture on rotation, because I've reached my goals there- the inversions have been elusive little buggers.) I've finally moved away from the wall for the inversions. Tonight as I practiced my handstand after a class, I said to myself, ok, hop yourself up there, and suck your body up into that imaginary straw and BE IN A HANDSTAND (straw analogy thanks to
Tiffany Cruikshank). So I did. For about, oh, 7 seconds. BUT, it was SO EXCITING. I believe that doing something like this must be close to the feeling a baby has when they roll over for the first time. And that is certainly a day one's world view shifts in some major way. That's the shit. (Sorry
Vidya, for the language) And there's so much more to come. So, bring it.
To clarify, yes I can sort of twist myself up into a pretzel, but that's not the point. The point is taping into your own power. Imagining the impossible, and making it real. It applies to all we do in life.
