There's nothing wrong with you

Reading from Tuesday, February 5, 2013 yoga class

I am just about finished reading Cyndi Lee's, "May I be happy" memoir and I am a bit sad.  I want it to go on and on.  She is so courageous and real.  I have such respect for her.  Again, my reading is from this book.  Let me set it up:  Cyndi is demonstrating how to help her yoga student, Jackie, use blocks in a forward bend. 

..."Jackie has been working hard on her yoga practice, but she still can't fold all the way forward without rounding her back and bending her knees.  So I patiently explain that if she places her hands on blocks it will lift her spine, allowing her to straighten her legs.  Then she can extend throught her spine and start to feel the benefits of this wonderful pose."

             So Cyndi encourages her some more and then Jackie says:

"I think maybe my arms are just too short.  Everyone laughs, including Jackie.  I say, "Oh yes, let's blame it on the arms!  I can guarantee you that in this class there is someone who has arms that are too long, or their legs are too short or too thick, or they are too old or too stiff or too tall or too loose or too tight..."  The class is really laughing now.  "The thing is, Jackie, we are used to thinking yoga will change our body to the way we want it to be--taller, thinner, stronger, more fluid--and then, and only then, will we really be able to 'DO' yoga.  But we can only ever do yoga with the body we have in this very moment, right now.  The first sutra or line of scripture from the traditional philosophy of yoga reads, 'Yoga is now.'  It's a mandate to relate to yourself as you are.  When we take our short arms and flabby thighs and gripped abdominals and bunions and muscle-bound shoulders, not to mention our bad mood and our burning ambition and our irritating, competitive nature--take all of that onto the mat with us and do yoga with all that in the mix--then we ARE doing yoga.  And then if our arms get longer and our legs get thinner we won't care anymore.  It's not about that.  We will be integrated--my favorite definition of yoga. 

"So, I 'm sorry to break the news, but you can't blame anything on your arms.  And what's more--I pause again both for dramatic effect and because what I am about to say is the most important lesson--there's nothing wrong with you.  The class is suddenly still and quiet.  There never has been and there never will be.  Jackie's face is open and a little bit pinky and flushed.  I hold her eyes with mine.  She doesn't cry, but I almost do." 


The longer I practice yoga, the more I know this is the absolute truth!!!