Eye of The Hurricane

It's the middle of the week and third year is living up to it's reputation. To be honest I didn't even know third year had a reputation until last semester. It was tough, not only was the work load heavier, it was harder too. Between swimming, working, school and volunteering I remember thinking on a regular basis that if I could just get through today, this week, this semester then it would all be ok. Little did I know that this semester would be no better. It seems as though as soon as I think I have a grasp on assignments, quizzes and readings, more stuff pops up that I had not anticipated. I suppose this is the life of a university student, and I shouldn't complain because not only am I here by choice, I'm paying thousands of dollars to be able to leave here in four years with a piece of paper.

After finishing up and printing off two assignments due tomorrow, and baking brownies with Sam (well to be honest I just watched and helped lick clean the batter spoon...good thing Faye doesn't read this or I'd be getting a raw egg/salmonella lecture for the second time today) for Andrea's birthday tomorrow, I decided that I wasn't quite sleepy and that I would substitute the P90X yoga workout with a podcast from Kinndli, and instructor at the Power Yoga Canada studio near my house that I was addicted to over Christmas break. I am so glad I did. The class itself wasn't my favorite, it was the shortest hour of my life it seemed but the sequence of poses seemed a little bit more scattered than usual and we didn't do a lot of the ones I really like and am trying master such as crow and wheel. Actually the class itself was fairly easy. But what I really liked about it was what Kinndli said while we were holding the posses. Yoga is all about quieting your mind and creating space. By quieting your mind you can hold the poses longer and leave your inhibitions, your weaknesses and your negative self talk behind. It allows you to drop everything else going on in your life for an hour to 90 minutes of your day and just be on your mat. Quieting your mind is really hard. Your legs are shaking, your sweating like crazy and all you can think about are assignments that are due, what your schedule for tomorrow is, what needs to get done by Monday and most of all when you can get out of the stupid pose that the stupid instructor is making you hold for way to long just because she likes to watch you suffer.

Today, Kinndli said that how we are on our mat is how we are in life; if we are looking for exit routes on our mat, grabbing water, fixing our hair, and fixing our shirt in the middle of a pose, we probably do the same things in life. Meanwhile, my leg is aching and I tuck in my shirt as an excuse to take a tiny break which gets me thinking (probably to much considering I'm supposed to be quieting my mind not get it spinning) is this true? It definitely is. Think of all the ways we distract ourselves from everything everyday! Think of how much more we could get done in a day, how much more space we could create in our lives, if instead of checking facebook and email and doing this and that other useless task in the midst of working, we just buckled down, quieted our minds and just got er done.

This isn't easy of course, if it were than we'd be ten times as productive. My goal is to be the eye of the hurricane. I can't control all the turmoil and craziness around me, but I can be still, I can quiet my mind and create more space in my life. I always complain about being too busy, not having enough time but I should really be complaining about how much time I waste and how I busy myself with silly time wasting habits. I think the world could use a little more calm, and where better to start than with me right now?