“To practice yamas and niyamas we must find within ourselves the maturity to tolerate the duality of our nature, while allowing the possibility of victory over our darkness.  Love is not a thought, it is an action…each loving action that we take infuses us with more energy for loving action in the future.”

-Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat

Day 17 – In this period of time, away from the blog and the normal routine, I have found some value in being gentle with time, saying “No,” when need be, and enjoying the moment.  First, I have again begun to feel like the energetic athlete, teacher, mother, creator that I am born to be.  I attribute that to fixing my nutrition first, not the exercise, although we are meant to move.  To heal, we must move, even if that means getting out of bed and lying supine on the floor for a few light stretches this way and that.  In any case, I have begun the 5:30 a.m. crossfit three days a week, which is three more days than I was able to go with my afternoon schedule.  I have also signed up for a half-marathon trail race, as well as a few other lesser distances periodically.  I will run-walk it because I really don’t care about my time, another huge leap in my evolution.

Today, after a short run-walk run at 4:30 a.m., I did a nice 20 minute yoga practice, and sat down to read today’s passages, which are an intro to yamas and niyamas, the habits that when practiced and coupled with love end the habit of violence we do to our bodies in our competitive, 24/7 mindset.  Perhaps, like Rolf, the practice itself is an “athletic way” to achieve health, like crossfit or running or eating a particular way, but it is “an invitation to be in our bodies in entirely new way, completing outside of the competitive win-lose dualistic narrative we live in.”  Yoga is still my given choice to end the habit of violence I do to my body when movement is forced and time constraints get the better of me.  It’s amazing how health unfolds itself with the right combination done in and with love.