Finding Freedom In Reckless Abandon

It was the first chilly Sunday morning of the fall, and I was anxious to attend the 10 a.m. yoga class. This is one of my favorite classes. It is the perfect hour, still the morning but with time to laze around a bit. Class is crowded, the people are all friendly and it lasts longer than usual. There is something about the large group and the extra 15 minutes.

 From the start, the energy is high, and it is catching.

We move from pose to pose with the instructor taking us through many different sequences. We moved from Yoga Squat to Crow to Warrior III. We flow from Warrior II to Triangle Pose. We inhale and exhale with each movement, and it never crosses my mind to look at the clock on the wall.

Regardless, this clock has all its numbers in a heap at the bottom with a quote that says, Who cares? This particular weekend, my mind was at ease. It was a welcome relief as it had been busy, busy, busy in the brain. The past few weeks had been somewhat overwhelming, and it seemed that my mind was only resting when I slept. Even then, I am not sure my sleep counted as rest as some of what I was busy with seemed to be appearing in my dreams!

We are going to move from one pose to another without thinking, the instructor said. Don’t over think it. Just move into it. The body will know what to do if you don’t think too hard.

No time to think. No time to stop.

If you think too hard, it can stop you from what you are doing, the instructor continued as we continued the flow on the other side.

In the past, I have found myself in times where too much thinking has stopped me from what I am doing. It is like being on a roller coaster  in the brain, and it is precious time lost, that is certain. Always, when things settle down, I look back with wonder at how I let myself hop on such a ride.

We stand in my favorite pose, Warrior II, legs stretched from front to back in a lunge, the back foot parallel to the back edge of the mat, the front foot perpendicular to the front of the mat, the hips and arms open to the side. Let’s move into Half Moon with reckless abandon, the instructor said.

Reckless abandon! I liked those words!

I flung myself forward onto my front leg, lifting up the back leg and keeping my arms spread. I hovered on one foot with one hand towards the mat and the other towards the sky. Then, back to Warrior II and, again, without thinking, back to Half Moon. With reckless abandon, I repeated the sequence with the class three times. Moving without thinking is actually very freeing.

My instructor was right. My body did what it needed to do because my mind was free.

There and then that Sunday morning, I decided not to buy any more tickets to the roller coasterride and instead to free my mind with reckless abandon, finding my way, that way.

 

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Editor: Edith Lazenby

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