Monday, August 29, 2011

Getting My Zen On

For the past three Saturdays I have been going to an Ilyengar based yoga class. I've always been interested in doing some more yoga, but, time and money never seemed to line up. Now that I've made more time in my schedule to be a happier, less overworked human being I figured better late than never. To say this class has been doing great things for me is an understatement! My head feels clearer and my body feel better; it's as if I'm undoing the tension caused by life and the physical impact of dance and work.

Of course, Irish dance is my 'addiction' and thus I've been practicing more, taking private lessons, and gearing up for a feis September 17th in Oklahoma City. There will also be a couple of performance opportunities in the next two months which I'm going to do as well. I'm excited about the competition and performing, which is kinda new- typically I'm a nervous wreck with excited mixed in there! That began to change a couple of weeks ago, I was watching an interview with Jeff Bridges. He said something that struck me, "Have fun, but, don't take it too seriously."* Of course! I tend to take everything too seriously, and sometimes I miss out on enjoying activities because I so desperately want what I do to be perfect. This is silly of course, no one is perfect, yet I stressed myself out about every little move I did wrong in dance, and subsequently in life. I won't go into everything I view as incorrect, but, I have realized that I need to keep life and activities in perspective, because if I'm not enjoying dance, work, training Leo, etc., I truly am missing the point.
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It seems that getting in shape, mentally and physically, and enjoying it really has a multitude of benefits. Which I know you're thinking, duhhh!! Even I knew this, I'm really beginning to experience these much talked about benefits for the first time. I think life offers many challenges, some wonderful, some not so. But, if you work to keep happy, live life, enjoy what it has to offer and put things in balance it seems, at least to me, that even the not so fun challenges are much easier to face.
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How do you keep your life in balance?
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*Jon has dubbed this statement as the Tao of The Dude. I feel like I should ring a bell every time I say it now. ;-)

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Don't have kids. That's all I'm saying. My chi fell out of my uterus with my first child, and I haven't seen it since.

Totally jealous of the yoga and can't wait to see pics from the feis!

Habebi said...

Sarah- Ha ha ha!! If I do have kids I'll figure out a way to anchor it to stay in my uterus ;-)

The Yoga Room is where I've been going. What's fantastic about this class is you just donate something and half of that donation goes to the Tulsa SPCA. The owners of the place are huge animal lovers. How cool is that? If you ever get some Saturday morning time, let me know if you want to meet up! It's totally no commitment. Maybe your chi will find its way back to you ;-)