Stepping Onto Your Yoga Mat and Out of Your Comfort Zone

    As I lay under a tree in savasana (for those who don't know what savasana is imagine laying down on the ground to make a snow angel with arms and legs spread about half way to the full angel position) contemplating the previous evening, we watched our daughter Jayne perform in her first musical, and it got me thinking about trying new things. I think Jayne was nine when I first remember thinking she was really brave. She came home and announced that she had tried out for the school talent show and that she had won a spot. Pete and I looked at each other and then looked at her and asked in unison, “what was your talent?” Jayne had taken swimming lessons, art lessons, dancing lessons, played soccer...well you get the picture; and nothing had stuck. So when she said she sang America the Beautiful we were completely speechless, she had never mentioned she had any interest in singing. This has been a lifelong pattern for her and she mostly accomplishes her goals, but not always, which is important too. As is my habit, I began mulling over this idea, and my first assumption was I must be lacking in this area and could surely learn from Jayne. Then it dawned on me that she probably learned this from one of us. Pete and I are both pretty good at getting out of our comfort zones; sometimes we are successful and other times it turns into what I call an adventure. This statement traditionally inspires Jayne to glance at her father as if to say, “we're in trouble now.” I suppose they are right, in my mind the term “adventure” is normally synonymous with, “I've screwed up and better just make the best of the situation.”

  As I lay in the grass thinking about comfort zones, I realized every time I roll out my yoga mat and open to the guidance of the teacher I am stepping out of my comfort zone.  Recently I went to a class with a teacher who has a background in gymnastics (red flag), and is at least twenty years younger than me (red flag), and still I unrolled my mat and opened to the adventure. As she guided us into fallen angel, a pose I had only seen in magazines, I watched as she put her hands on the floor, bent her elbows, lowered her head to the ground and placed a cheek to the floor, leaned into her hands, stretched her legs out into a wide scissor position, and then lifted her legs into the air. Ok, adventure time.  I proceed to set myself up, tried to lift my legs up, and then promplty fell back down to the floor. I tried it again, and then moved on to the next pose she presented. Those who know me well know that I have an affinity for Buddhism, especially the idea that our expectations create our suffering. As I drove home from yoga that day I realized I had no expectations about the poses I had just practiced. I was able to embrace the moment without attachment to outcome. Perhaps my adventures on the yoga mat had been inspirational in my life in ways that I was only beginning to understand, and perhaps this is something that Jayne had recognized and emmulated without knowing.