Too Much of a Good Thing?

I've merged the Everyday Yoga blog entries from last year into this blog.  If you look at the archives, you'll notice a jump between October 2002 and October 2003.  I didn't stop practicing during that time, I simply wrote about my Yoga experiences in my other blog, The Whinery Behind the Beaded Curtain.

Speaking of Yoga experiences, I've been coming to work early (here by 4:30 AM) so I could practice before work.  We've been trying to get management to put in an employee gym and last week I was told that one of the storage areas was now set aside for a trial run of just such an endeavor.  With the intent of bragging up my use of the area, I began my early morning practice yesterday.  I've run into a problem that has put a halt to my efforts:  I'm enjoying it too much.  Sounds insane, I know.

There is no one there while I'm practicing (well, the guys over on the plant but no one in my building), so I have a completely quiet environment.  At home I have to contend with four youngsters plus whatever else may be happening at the time.  Needless to say, practicing at work was blissful.  The problem comes from the fact that my current practice takes around two hours and I only have an hour and a half to practice and get ready for work.  Practicing left me aching to finish, the tension created by not completing my practice basically canceled out the benefits of my practice.

My question to you, my good readers:  Where do you find space and time for your personal practice that is free from outside intrusion?

The Dawn Breaks

If you follow my other blog, The Whinery, then you know that I suffer from mild depression and SAD or Season Affective Disorder.  Put the two together and life becomes very bleak and pale.  I wrote the following back in 2001:

Hello Darkness my old friend
Have you come to live with me again?
You've come early this year . . . but never fear
I've kept for you a room,
A place of sorrow and of gloom.
I see that on your wings
You carry the Muse that to my heart sings.
Sings the songs that hide deeply within my soul.

How long will you stay?
Have no fear, I'll not chase you away
But you've come early this year.
Is it because I've shed a tear
For those who've gone before us beyond the night?
Surely you have seen that my strength is gone
And so you've come with your Siren's song.

On Wednesday I penned (can one do that with a blog?) another drear entry.  I fully expected to be locked into depression for a long period of time, I had forgotten one very significant thing:  Wednesday night is Yoga night.  For the past eight weeks, I have spent each Wednesday night from shortly after 6 PM until 9:30 PM or so practicing Yoga with my teacher, JC Carter.  The course was offered through a local continuing education program and has been marvelous.  I have tried so many different ways of overcoming my depression and SAD:  Counseling, herbs, exercise, prayer, and even reveling in it (which worked better than most, oddly enough).  Nothing I have tried has done for me what Yoga did for me last night.  By the time class ended, my heart was light and the darkness had melted away.  It was as if sunlight were shining through the earth and right into my heart.

Autism

As many of you know, my oldest son has autism.  The most obvious symptoms of Jonathan's autism are his difficulty with conversational speech and his gross motor skills.  It is not uncommon for him to halt mid-sentence and be unable to continue without a great deal of coaxing.  Anyone who simply watches him play will recognize within minutes that his movement is not fluid and that it is more like that of Edgar from the movie, Men In Black.  On the other hand, you would be amazed at the knowledge floating in this boy's head, he's been reading books on astronomy, geology, biology and other sciences since he taught himself to read at age four.

A couple of weeks ago, Jonathan brought home a note saying that he had not done well in class.  This continued the entire week.  I discussed the problem with him and resolved to have him begin practicing Yoga with me.