Easy and difficult ways

On first day of yoga, we sat in the last row and tried to copy the movements of the class. This wasn't as easy as you may think, because I couldn’t help laughing!

Yes, it was silly, but I was helpless to act otherwise.

As I realised later, the laughter was a result of two opposing forces: one, the desire to explore this exercise form and the other, an unwillingness to be seen associating with the doctrinaire worldview of yoga.

Okay, try sitting still with your back straight and neutral. Such a posture should require the least effort, but it can be extremely uncomfortable and tiring for someone not used to it. Even a few minutes are hell. What is happening here?

Let me give you another example. Some blog effortlessly: expressing their viewpoint in simple language and yet communicating the subtlest of ideas. Others, perhaps more erudite, get tied up in knots saying the simplest of things.

When there is dysfunctional body tension, it is difficult to sit in a neutral, upright posture, something that should otherwise come naturally. It’s the same when a blogger’s output is impeded by conflicting tendencies in his mind.

Practice, with maybe a little bit of help, can correct these faults. As unnatural tensions disappear, body movements become fluid. (Or the writing flows.)

As I close my eyes to exercise these days, laughter is the farthest thing from my mind.

A lot of what the life’s has to offer remains blocked because of our own dysfunctional behaviour. We only need to discover the blocker.

Sometimes it could be conscious thought itself...