Sunday, January 06, 2008

WoYoPracMo | Day 5: I Really Wanted to Skip

I really wanted to skip yoga practice on Saturday.

Well, it's the weekend. It was raining. I slept late the night before and woke up around 1 pm. I had chores to do around the house. I have library books that are due. All the excuses in the world to skip practice, yes?

There are moments it seems like yoga has taken over my life. I have less time for other things -- and sometimes it bothers me. Sometimes I "rebel" against this feeling -- this loss of control; I skip practice just to hang out with friends, or just to do something frivolous like lying in bed and reading, listening to music.

My friends know by now that any dates with me have to be scheduled around my yoga classes. I used to go clubbing with my friends, but I've stopped because I no longer drink and I hate staying out late. (Anyone who has ever practiced yoga dehydrated, hung over and lacking sleep knows how awful it can be.)

My friends find it troublesome to ask me out for dinner, because I am vegetarian and a lot of restaurants are not vegetarian-friendly. People have stopped inviting me to BBQs, well, because it would be cruel to starve the vegetarian. :p

A teacher once said to the class: since he started practicing yoga, he has become more "disciplined." He joked that "discipline" sounds boring, like something they do in the military. But then he explained: discipline, is really about "knowing what you want" -- and working towards it.

There are only 24 hours in every day; there is never enough time to do everything that we want. Which means we have to figure out what is truly important to us, and focus on those things instead. The less important things, we may just have to let them fall away.

Anyway, around 10:40 on Saturday evening I was wondering if I really wanted to skip yoga practice. I found myself slipping one of the Shiva Rea DVDs into my laptop and I did a gentle 30 minutes practice.

Saturday ended with a practice afterall. :)

5 comments:

Rebecca H. said...

I'm glad you got that practice in -- the discipline stuff is very hard! I know the feeling of wanting to do anything but yoga practice -- or riding or running or whatever. It's nice when you find yourself easily slipping into the workout after all.

Yogamum said...

Well done!

Anonymous said...

how often do you do yoga, then? does it take a lot of hours out of your week?

darkorpheus said...

Jean Pierre On very good weeks, every day. So on work days I rush for class. Usually I get home only about 8~9pm.

But I'm keeping to 6 times a week, including holidays and weekends - where I do the more challenging classes or take more classes.

But there are times when it gets difficult, so I skip, maybe 4~5 times a week.

purplefugue said...

I'll be practising more, esp on weekdays. I've signed up for the workshops before and will do more this year. Heard that there's some Hatha ones starting soon. Joining?