Daily Meditation
My baseline yoga practice occurs three times a week in a small Silverlake apartment. There are rarely more than two or three other people present, plus a long-haired orange cat who will occasionally nudge the mat while I'm in headstand. No music or frippery distract me from my yoga. This isn't fashion hour. It's serious yoga business. I'm able to focus on my poses, and my gaze, and my breath, and the higher things.
Today, while in some complicated twist or other, I noticed that the protruding mole on my right shoulder had gotten larger, and that there were many hairs shooting out wildly. It looked like a little troll. Thus recognized, it stayed in my thoughts throughout practice. When I reached savasana, my mind drifted to the office of an imaginary dermatologist. I envisioned him cutting off my mole with a blade, and wondered if he'd use anesthetic first.
Wait, I thought. This isn't good yoga practice. You're supposed to notice something, acknowledge the noticing, and continue your business. If you notice something and then imagine a surgeon removing it by knife point, your practice is off. So I let my mind wander. The first thing it latched onto was the permanently ingrown wart on my left heel. No one's ever been able to take it out, but the imaginary podiatrist that I was thinking of just then might! Would he cut it off, or freeze it, or give me a prescription for those little strips that do the job themselves? Oh, damn! Why was I so Jewish?
Then teacher was chanting, vande gudanam...and it brought me back. Are you allowed to take a Mulligan on corpse pose? Because I'd like one for today.
Comments
I think I spend a good 60% of my savasanas thinking about my next meal or, after the really sweaty practices, fantasizing about water. I hope the yoga gods will forgive me.
Posted by: Kt Crud | April 14, 2009 9:44 AM
I find your silence on teabagging on the eve of the first teabagging holiday to be very concerning.
Posted by: Hank Essay | April 14, 2009 5:07 PM
When my mind drifts in savasana, it goes two places: as the above commenter said, "my next meal," or, weirdly, "my next pair of jeans that I really can't afford but that I want to buy."
But by the time I get out of the class, I'm usually not that hungry anymore, and the desire to shop usually passes. It's just basic acquisitiveness shooting out like tiny sparks from a dying flame, before the flame sputters out.
Posted by: Paula | April 15, 2009 11:05 AM
Ever since I've been pregnant I've routinely fallen asleep during savasana. I think that's even worse than dwelling on imaginary podiatrists.
Posted by: Claire Bidwell Smith | April 15, 2009 11:17 AM
It's going to sound crazy, but duct tape is the best way to kill off otherwise hard-to-get-to skin things like that. Hit it with some liquid nitrogen, cover it with a nice snug piece of tape, and leave it there for a few days. Chances are, by the time the tape starts to peel off on its own, it'll take the wart or whatever with it. I'm speaking from personal experience here.
Posted by: matt | April 18, 2009 5:56 PM
The mind moves. Some days the practice is clear, other days not. And sometimes, we just have to focus on the moles. It's not failure - just part of practice.
Posted by: Toad | June 17, 2009 9:11 PM