Day 3: Not Everything is a Competition

Posture #2: Ardha Chandrasana - Half Moon Pose

I walk into class this morning and checked the Challenge sign up list to see how many people had signed up. Hmmmm. That's a lot, wonder how many will really finish. I went back to the locker room, put away my stuff and then went to set up my mat & towel. Whew, MY spot is still open (front row, to the right of the instructor stand) - I hate it when someone is in MY spot.

Class starts. Your supposed to look at yourself in the mirror, focus on yourself, your body, the pose - 90 minutes of moving meditation. "You are your best teacher." Uh Huh.

Lisa was NOT focusing on herself, she was competing with others in the room, unbeknown to them. Yep. I was kinda looking beyond myself in the mirror at spaghetti body chick or at the mother from the Incredibles and saying....DAMN, why can't I do that? I was, through sheer determination, trying to twist, stretch and bend my body just like SuperStretch who not only has been doing this for years but also probably weighs about as much as one of my thighs.

Suddenly, my body decided to jack slap me back into reality (FOCUS ON YOU!, YOU STOOPIT AZZ) by delivering a sharp pain up the back of my leg. Gotch your attention now, don't I?

It was at that moment that I realized that NOT EVERYTHING IS A DAMN COMPETITION WITH SOMEONE ELSE. This is about focusing on me, listening to my body, and training my mind and my body to go further, deeper, be stronger. The only person I am competing with during this challenge is my own ego.

My ego. My thoughts. The white noise of my mind.

I could either spend this time competing with other people, hurting myself, not getting stronger or better. Or I could become "My Best Teacher", listen to my body, focus my mind and shame the devil.

By the way, I've pretty much got the left side of picture/first part of Half Moon, the right sideof picture/second part - Not So Much.