After class, he asked me what brought me to yoga. At first I thought he was referring to the influence that brought me to teach. But he was actually wondering if there was a turning point in my life that brought me to yoga.
I explained that it wasn't until recently (within the last 4 -5 years actually) that I realized that I have been practicing yoga since I was about 10 years old. I wasn't practicing asanas, but I was practicing a few of the other eight limbs of yoga: particularly the yamas, niyamas, and pratyahara. I explained that I couldn't think of any one thing that started me on this path. I ended with, "Now I'll have to think about it." Even as the words where coming out of my mouth...I began to remember:
Whenever I felt 'ungrounded' or disconnected, I would take a walk to a nearby creek, cross the water on a downed tree, sit on a flat boulder, and just breathe. Sometimes I would sit for 10 minutes and sometimes an hour, but always I waited until I could hear the leaves talking. At this moment, I always felt re-centered, re-energized, and quite literally as one with the world.
At 10 years old, I didn't yet possess the language to describe these walks. But, even in this split moment of thought, I know that I didn't start talking these walks because of some great event in my life. Quite the opposite actually, I took them simply because I felt drained, bored, or uninspired. The interesting thing about life is that sometimes the most mundane occurences have the largest impact on our lives. We fret and worry over things that inevitably pass and we don't give a second thought to how our smiling at the checkout person would make their day.
The gentleman said, "Don't think about it. We think too much." And he is right. The outcome is the same. I am where I am, right now, today. But, I thank him for sending me on the walk down memory lane. What a joy!
