forgotten mantra

Yoga is difficult.

Ehrm -- A-a-ack.

Think I wasn't cut out to be a Zen Buddhist yogi.

(If I were practicing meditation, I'd probably wind up like the Jeff Goldblum character with the cameo in the film Annie Hall: at a swingin' Los Angeles party, he is intense on the telephone (a "cord-ful" phone), his back turned toward the crowd noise, speaking urgently into the receiver, "Uh, yes I -- forgot my mantra!"

That'd be me. ...)

Doing it (yoga) on bedroom carpet this morning, thought -- how LONG can thirty seconds last??!
On a sheet of paper pulled from a magazine I had, are -- 6 or eight pictures, showing a position, or pose that you're supposed to get into and then hold for 30 seconds.

Then you go to the next pose, and do that one for 30 seconds.
And that's exercise.
It really is.
In Western-world-mind, we're used to exercise being -- go, go, go. Step, step, step. Pedal, pedal, pedal. Jump, kick, twist, bounce -- lift, lift, lift.

In the Eastern-style, it's supposed to be -- stretch, make effort, and Relax-in-the-effort. And hold.
And the ubiquitous admonition: "Don't forget to breathe!"
(At least when I follow the pictures from the magazine I don't have annoying exhortations like that coming at me from the TV, as is the case when following a show...)

I keep a clock with a second-hand next to me, & position it, with each new Yoga position so that wherever my face is, I can SEE that clock so I know when I'm done holding the pose.

I adjusted the 30-seconds to 25, for each pose.
Enough already.

-30-