By guest blogger: Nick Mercer
Sometimes I just write and pick the title at the end. Sometimes the title comes first. This time it’s the title first. It’s meant as a placeholder mostly, until I see how this develops. Those are to be the subjects of this blog. However, having made it to the sixth sentence, I don’t know that they will be subjects, so much as cues, or jumping off points. Well, yoga is the subject, so that’s true, in an all-encompassing, vague sort of way, but “interpretation” I’m not so sure about. “Breath” just seems like a good word to put at the end of a title for a blog about yoga. Maybe “breathe” is better. Potato, potato.
Yoga is a relatively new practice for me, of nine months-ish. It’s not the first new exercise I’ve tried since my brain injury just over 13 years ago. It hasn’t drastically altered my approach to life or the way I see the world around me. Yet. I think it’s delightfully insidious. Technically I interpret what the instructor is saying into movement or poses, but it also works the other way. I move, in class and outside of class, seemingly without thinking about it, and those movements are being interpreted into thoughts. This is true of all physical activity. It’s why I swim. It’s why I do pilates. It surely helped me in my physical rehabilitation. That’s what I mean about yoga being insidious. As the breath and movement become the focus, my mind calms and I’m ready for the inevitable challenges, small or big, that will come.
As it turns out, interpretation was as good a word as any to use as part of the title. I was thinking about ‘interpreting’ a breath or movement, as opposed to actually living that breath/movement/moment, but then I thought about what yoga, the entire practice, means for me. I interpret yoga as a whole, not as a series of poses, movements, or even a mindset, but as all of them applied to life. When I’m doing pilates, when I’m swimming, when I’m walking to the grocery store, then I am more able to experience what’s happening. Happiness, pain, humour, discomfort, and more. All of it. To me, that’s what yoga means. Yoga is about experiencing the world around me.
I did the 30 day trial, so I tried out different classes. My second class was Kundalini with Teresa. I suppose ‘discomfort’ is the best way to describe what I put myself through in that class, but it’s entirely self-inflicted. Granted, Teresa instructs/teaches/’suggests’ the different poses/movements, but it’s up to each person to decide how far to take them. While the term ‘discomfort’ seems most apt, it is the discomfort that makes Kundalini enjoyable. Discomfort is the sensation, but self control is what is instilled. Not only the obvious control needed to get past my own discomfort, but, perhaps more importantly, the control needed to make myself go through it, willingly, it the first place,
Yoga is great exercise, and though my balance is very challenging, I will get the poses eventually. That’s not why I will keep doing yoga. It’s a cool bonus, but it’s not the point for me. I enjoy the calm, the focus, and how it helps me experience the rest of life.
As you may have picked up, I’m keeping the title. Otherwise, the first paragraph would have to be cut. It wouldn’t make any sense with a different title. Maybe I could’ve included ‘focus’ in the title as well, but it’s too late now. I can’t help but see a thin line between going with the flow and letting what I just wrote shape what comes after. That’s basically what focus is. However, if I put ‘focus’ in the title, then this whole paragraph would have to be cut too. I can keep going, but I have to stop writing at some point.
Nick Mercer writes Concussion Talk and hosts Concussion Talk Podcast. You can find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/concussiontalk/, Twitter https://twitter.com/concussiontalk, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/concussiontalk/ or check out his blog and podcast at http://www.concussiontalk.com/
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