I love Packer Football. It was a slow shift in my life. I grew up with the game and can remember going to a Packer Superbowl party as a kid, but then I didn't really care much about it again until I was bar tending at a Packer bar in Wisconsin. About the same time I was really working hard on my yoga practice and came across this wonderful quote:
"You find that life is this game of inches...so is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half a second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch the ball. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that inch."
Last time I posted, I said we often need to slow down and listen to our bodies. Be present to avoid injury. But when we are healthy and feeling well, there is often this pull inside of ourselves to have a "better" practice.
I came across this quote during a time when I was striving to get better everyday. I was searching for the full depth of each posture and was frustrated because I didn't feel I was making any progress. This quote told me to look deeper. When we progress it may be only an inch. Often times, we don't even notice. Look deeper, maybe the progress is that we stand taller, or breathe deeper. Maybe we can hold standing bow just a second longer, or press our heels just a little closer to the mat in downward facing dog. The beauty of Yoga is that it does its job without us ever having to work for it.
Just as in football through, we can fight if we choose. We all have our wish list, those postures in the distance that ask us to fight for them.
For me, it's scorpion pose.
Scorpion has been calling to me for a long time and it is just now that I can see it coming. I am fighting for inches, not miles. This is another instance when I am searching for depth, but this time I can better appreciate the progress my mind and body are making.
At the end of the day, football is just a game. At the end of the day scorpion is just one posture. It doesn't matter that I am able to obtain it, what matters is that I roll out my mat every day. You win, but you don't stop there, you lose, but your back again tomorrow.
At first, yoga and football are completely different. Football is rough, fast and competitive, which is why I think I am such a fan. I love the athleticism and the muscle, the speed and the Lambeau Leap. Yoga is serene. Or, it is when we watch someone practice, or look at a beautiful picture of someone doing tree pose in the middle of a field during fall.
But we all fight for an inch. We practice, day after day for an inch. That is determination. It's that fight, that drive, that makes yoga like football; perseverance, continued focus, and presence of mind to reach our goals.
