JUST LIKE STARTING OVER

Whew! It's good to be home.  Don't get me wrong; 5 weeks in Great Britain with my husband was great fun.  It was also exhausting.  And I came home with a head cold and a recurrence of my old migraine problem.  Too little rest, too much travel stress, too much restaurant food, maybe a wee bit too many shortbread cookies.  And no yoga.  None.  Nadda.

Pre-trip I had entertained the notion that I'd have time to find little yoga studios to pop into here and there in our travels, but being on two back-to-back tours meant the itineraries were not our own.  There was almost zero time to ourselves and what there was was spent trying to recuperate from the jam-packed on the go schedule.  One afternoon I just stayed in my room and slept.

In the almost two weeks since we've been home, I've been slowly reacclimatizing.  It was summer when we left, and suddenly it's fall and the short days mean disorientingly dark mornings and evenings.  I'm still tired and wonder how long jet lag is supposed to last.  My cold and migraines have sidelined me from the activities I had looked forward to resuming.

But I got myself to the studio on Tuesday in spite of all this.  Sipping my coffee at home, I almost talked myself out of going, but I could hear Karen's admonition that the hardest part of yoga is getting there.  So even though I was running late, I got myself out the door and on the familiar drive to the studio.

It felt great to be there.  Warm, beautiful, welcoming environment; friendly, familiar faces (and so many who were brand new!).  I told Karen to go easy on me, but others were ready for a challenge so she led a "gentle, general" class that was just right.  Except....

I could really tell I was rusty.  I knew all the poses, of course, and most felt wonderful to do.  But I also felt stiff and weak and not as bend-y.  I noticed I still have that mystery issue with my left hip not opening as it used to.  Even Child's Pose, my usual favorite resting pose, took some squirming to find a place of comfort.

The victory in all of that was noticing how accepting I was of my (temporary!) deficits.  I didn't beat myself up, but lovingly accepted that of course I was out of practice and why not after 7 weeks out of the studio?  I gently held the truth that I will resume my regular practice and continue to loosen and soften into it.

At the end of class my cough returned when I tried to lie down in Savasana, so I sat up in Easy Pose, eyes closed, meditating on the great good fortune I had to travel, to return safely, to find my yoga community thriving, and my place in it easy to inhabit again.

If you are starting over, after an absence of a day or a month or more, be gentle and know you are right where you need to be.  I'm with you.©

Namaste,  donnajurene