Yoga Parents

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Comment by (un)relaxeddad on January 25, 2009 at 2:51am

Time I added something - I started writing this on Pat's wall then realised that I should post it here.

Something a favourite yoga teacher of mine said that encouraged me endlessly was about how frustrated she'd get when practicing with other student teachers just after she'd had her first child. They'd be swanning in airily talking about the latest four hour practice followed by two hours of nidra that left them feeling so, like, connected and she'd have spent four hours changing nappies and breast feeding followed by two hours of, well, changing nappies and breast feeding. Yoga practice was pretty much squeezed out. Of course, she said, being a parent is practice - whether it's standing in mountain when putting up washing or breathing a baby to sleep or any of the other myriad activities that one needs (and see my latest blog post - I so need to reflect on all this again!) to get through - there's an asana, even as a notion held in your mind's eye, for all of them (what's your most unlikely asana/parenting activity combo?).

Soto Zen practice has the same idea - one of the medieval monk and teacher Dogen's books was called "Instructions to the cook" and assumed that Zen was to be found in the most everyday of activities, that it was in fact essential to find it there.

So don't be discouraged if parenting feels like it's squeezing out your practice. Just squeeze back, even it's only five minutes. Grab any little window you can. I just spent ten minutes playing GoGo's (don't ask) sitting in Hero whilst resolutely holding the bhandas. And now (because supermum is helping him tidy his room and the 1yo seems to be napping) I'm going to grab the chance to do at least two or three sun salutations and a forward bend or two before the next chunk of weekend lands on our head like a falling ceiling...