Sometimes I spend an entire yoga class just waiting and wishing to get to savasana. Corpse Pose. When I can lie on my back, still and silent, with my mind mostly empty, for complete and total relaxation.
I move through the class mindlessly. Not working as hard as I know I can, not pushing. My muscles aren’t engaged and my monkey mind is running wild.
It’s up to me. I can make the choice to push and be fully present, or not. Either way I will get the benefits of moving and breathing for that hour or so, but the benefits will be fewer if I’m not totally engaged. I’ll miss out on building muscle tone, strength and flexibility. I’ll miss out on that feeling of being completely immersed in something, in the zone, if I choose to simply go through the motions.
How often do we just go through the motions? Don’t we do it all of the time? When we wake up and zombie through our morning routine. We drive to work on autopilot not remembering any of the ride when we get there. We walk around with our faces in our iPhones to avoid conversation. We plod through the day’s tasks just wishing it were 5:00. We watch three hours of television when we get home. We wake up on Monday already waiting for Friday. We wish away the winter in hopes of a brighter spring. We stay in miserable situations, hoping they will pass.
Oh, they will pass. Surely it will all pass, because this life is short.
It’s up to us. We can choose to be actively engaged, or we can just keep going through the motions until we get to Corpse Pose.
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Skip to My Lou, My Dharma 
[…] Every time we take a yoga class we act out the drama of human existence on our mats. There are moments of yin and moments of yang. We sweat and we breathe. We come to terms with what our bodies can and cannot do. We come to terms with the control or lack of control we have over our thoughts. All the while, our subconscious is aware of that final resting pose. Savasana. Corpse Pose. […]