The one where I missed the Big Metaphor

So I'm laying in yoga tonight (literally, laying on my back, while everyone else is doing this nutso sequence I can't quite follow to even know when to rejoin after both sides), thinking.  The instructor was putting everyone into a variation of a crazy forward fold sort of thing and explaining that you can't just drop into it right away--you have to breathe your way into it.  Your body will shove itself into whatever posture you want, but it's not always comfortable and, if you do it really wrong, you might only be able to do it the one time. But, if you go slowly, in stages, and take your time, the process becomes a whole lot more pleasant.

And then my mind drifted toward my mad dash from Minnesota to Santa Barbara.  I thought about the compulsive need I had to get in my car every day and drive 10-12 hours to "get there."  Because heaven forfend I would take some breaths along the way.  Stop in Colorado and visit friends.  Stop to see whatever Nebraska's version of the World's Biggest Ball of Twine is.  Nope, I had to Get There. And now, I'm paying for it.  I feel like I need about 900 yoga classes to get myself back to center.

But it's good--that's part of why I'm out here, is to figure stuff like that out. To observe from the outside that I hauled ass to Santa Barbara in the same way I overstretch my hamstrings in a forward bend.  It's incentive to, rather than try to set a land speed record for the drive home, take a few extra days to travel back to MN.  Because it's out of my comfort zone.  Because I'll learn from it.

Life lessons present themselves all the time. You don't need to travel across the country to learn them--though, I will say, being 2000 miles away from home has highlighted a LOT of lessons I need to spend some time with.  If you can't drive 2000 miles out of your comfort zone, try going to your yoga mat.  If you don't have a yoga mat, maybe just getting a mat is enough of a step out of "The Zone."  Ask yourself: What do I rush through? Where could I slow down? A hundred things may come to mind....pick one.  Then, the next time you encounter that thing, take twice as long as you want to accomplish it.  Breathe.