Yoga Gave Me My ISH Back.

by

rsz_ish

adult-ISH.

Lately, Ive become an adult.

I don’t even know how it happened, but one day I was happily not giving a f*ck and the next I was all grown up and business-like.

Job hunting, mortgage paying, parent teacher conference’ing, taxes figure out’ing full-on ADULTING.

In some ways it was good (we love us some electricity & groceries up in herre) yet for the most part it suffocated me.

I was getting stuff done, I was managing homework, I was pre-planning meals, I was creating a yoga habit, I was careening terrifyingly toward full-on adulthood.

I didn’t feel like myself.

The challenge was I couldn’t pinpoint exactly was “off.” I sensed something was missing–I couldn’t figure out what it was.

I didn’t feel depressed, but felt organized and austere flat and as though Id lost my spark.

Id been so busy celebrating getting my life together and patting myself on the back for that accomplishment I’d failed to notice I’d transformed into a bonafied ADULT (no ISH) in the process.

adulting sweatshirt

oh the horrors!

As Joni says, I’d taken for granted my natural, play-filled state and didn’t realize what I’d had ’till it was gone.

Enter yoga.

screen-shot-2016-10-12-at-4-28-18-am

 

#1. Yoga made me move in new ways.

Only in hindsight did I realized Adulting Carla moved in the same fashion every damn day.

I woke, I walked with a friend, I sat, I walked the dog, I sat, I sat, I got horizontal for sleep, I repeated the whole thing the next day.

My overall fitness didn’t seem to suffer, but it wasn’t great for my body and it most definitely wasn’t playful.

Yoga made me aware of the importance of moving in all ways in all planes. And, when I couldn’t quite master a pose and ended up toppled back down on my mat, yoga reminded me of the importance of laughter.

rsz_image-113

what happens in the studio…

#2. Yoga turned me into my child.

The Child is smitten with gymnastics. She takes classes 3 times per week and can always be found in a state of bending, stretching, moving during any hours she’s not at the gym. It’s as though she cannot stop herself from contorting whenever she has the (space and) opportunity purely because it’s fun.

She’s amazed by what her body can do and seizes any chance to play around with it/discover how much more she’s capable of.

I’ve become my ten year old.

headstand

…happens at home, too.

#3. Yoga has become a running joke.

In our house the best indicator we’re living playful lives is the amount of laughter you hear inside. My yoga practice, in the best possible of ways, is now woven into our family language and become a source of levity.  Stories about my inability to flip my dog have extended into our literal time with the golden doodle.

These interactions make us giggle and train my brain to associate yoga with playful laughter. My brain believes the story I tell it.

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one of many attempts to flip her dog.

#4. Yoga reminded me I can.

My yoga habit has helped me say yes again to the many play-opportunities around me. Stand Up Paddle? Trampoline Park? Kangoo Jumps competition? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Sure when I was 100% ADULTing I maintained my fun-spirit (we glowstick’ed & trampoline-slept) I’d begun to hesitate, however, when The Child and friends would invite me to join them in their world of play.

Would I hurt my back? became my barometer/decision making tool and, as a result, I may have been fun but I’d shed my sense of play.

Now, thanks to my time on the mat, I say YES! to each invitation to join in simply because I’m confident I can.

full wheel yoga

whether you think you can or can’t–you’re right.

For decades I viewed yoga solely as an uber-serious, mental practice.

It is and yet it’s also about changing the way I view things which, in turn, propels me toward change.

Not always serious change.

Or, as I like to put it, yoga helped me cease being a complete adult and gave me my ISH back.

And you?

  • Have you rediscovered PLAY in surprising places?
  • Have you found yourself ADULTing far too much recently, too?

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Comments

  1. One of my favorite yoga teachers is all about play. She mixes it up in so many different variations that it’s never so serious. And she tells jokes while we are holding hard poses! My ish is all over the place thanks to her!

  2. I get to play every single day! I consider most of my training “play” even though it’s serious hard work at times. I’m so grateful that I get to do it and I truly enjoy it…most of the time 🙂

    Love the handstands! I need to have more of those in my life 🙂

  3. I love when you said ” My brain believes the story I tell it” because that is such an interesting concept – what we tell our brain comes to be our reality. Maybe I’ll start telling mine that I’m a runner and it will believe me??? BTW I love the decor in the background of the pics x

  4. I am so happy that you’ve not only discovered and enjoyed yoga but that it has brought you happiness and play into daily life! I agree – the new challenges and fresh perspective it brings makes me feel like a child and not just when I’m in child’s pose! 🙂

  5. So glad you’ve found you way back to the mat. And I can’t believe *I*m saying that! It’s not in my regular cycle right now – I need to find a 6 am yoga class – but it’s there.

  6. I love yoga! I take it seriously, but also have fun with it. It has really widened my perspective on new ways to move my body and my mind too! It is always fun to read how yoga has impacted others in a similar way! Good for you!

  7. Yoga for me is exactly that, it’s for me. It’s my time to meditate, exercise or have fun or all three at once. I sit way to much so it probably is saving my life too!

  8. As a yoga instructor, my mom has always emphasized the fun aspects of it. Glad you have rediscovered this side of yourself!

  9. I probably am adulting too much. But I am finding I can make adulting more productive if I make it into play. As in, I get a lot more accomplished when I listen to a funny podcast while I work. Or I dance around while helping my son clean his room. Whatever makes me laugh seems to make me a better “adult.”

  10. I’m intimidated by the yoga studio in my neighborhood. I guess I had just assumed all studios were this way. I could use more fun!

  14. Yes I have been adulting A LOT. Without a 40hour a week job in the way all of a sudden my adulting life is in full view and cannot be ignored. I really liked that yoga proved to you that you can, tis how I feel about running.

  16. I am so over adulting. I hate to use the hate word but I hate it… 🙂 I will say childhood was a struggle too but I did not have to pay the bills & all the other stuff that comes with adulting…

    I am not sure if yoga or something else would help. Definitely the gym helps as an escape & stress relief. 🙂

  17. Adulting is for…. adults. Sometimes I think I adulted better when I was a kid. But maybe that is for the reasons that yoga is helping you adult–a better balance of life and play.

  18. I love this! Really getting into riding bikes has turned me back to my 10 year old self. Especially when I’m just riding without a concrete plan, or using my cruiser bike to transport myself around (just like I did as a kid).

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