Day 203 – Rolf writes of rehabilitation today, and in his time spent on the mat, he has learned how he “suffered profoundly by allowing the flawed thinking of the world to define” him. This flawed understanding of the world definitely causes inaction, missteps, and so much more. That Rolf compares his years on the mat to be like an “archaelogical dig” is paramount to understanding and writing our story, followed by “rehabilitation.” To reinhabit our body and to rehabituate our potential, a long-term yoga practice is key, whether it is asana, meditation, or pranayama. Creating positive habits in place of old ones is important on the mat as it is off the mat. Indeed, this work on the mat tells us much of the past and informs the future.
This reading comes at a time when the world feels crazy. There is a fine balance of healthy self-care and realities of my aging population. The best advice I’ve had lately was to balance the science (once you find it), self (knowing what works and doesn’t work for me), setting goals and finding success, and sanity. To build compassion toward myself, and thereby toward others, I have to ask why I worry, why I “need” something, why it is important. If I am making myself worry, I simply step back and write down what action I will take to resolve it and if I can’t take an action, how does the worry serve me? It isn’t easy to take a step back and and peel away the layers, but who is more skilled at my history than myself?
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