A Day in the Life of Sore and Clumsy

Photo via swanfungus.com

I'm a clumsy girl. Always have been, always will be. I used to blame it on the fact that I am tall, have big feet, and over-sized hips, but now I just admit that it's a fact of life. Some days it's worse than others, and some days "my powers combine" to create a total mess of a person. Yesterday was one of those days. 

Let me set the stage: after staying holed up in our apartment for an entire day this past weekend due to the "hurricane," Ben and I got a bit stir-crazy. So, on Sunday we went to the nearby track and Ben led us through an "explosiveness training" workout, aka, a warm-up and then TONS of sprinting, broad jumping, and crazy drills. The last time that I did about 100 long sprints in a row? During basketball practice in 10th grade. No kidding. The last time I did broad jumps? Um, never. So that's probably all you need to know before I tell you that I was EXTREMELY sore yesterday (and am even worse today, but that's another story)--and when you teach yoga as your job, being so sore that you can't walk, squat, or sit down is *kind of* an issue. Add this immobility (legs that don't really bend without making a face) to a day full of demonstrating yoga poses, assisting people, weeding in the garden (I know, right?) and absolute clumsiness, and you'll get one mess of a day.

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Photo via vanncon.blogspot.com

Don't believe me? Yesterday I: walked into a closing elevator door and it smashed my shoulder. Tripped on the curb and practically broke my toe. Dropped a block on a student in my class. Then, later in class knocked a jar of china gel off of the shelf and it hit the same student's foot (needless to say I felt absolutely horrible and she's probably never coming back to my class again...sigh). Walked into the edge of our coffee table and smashed my knee--after which I collapsed onto the floor in child's pose and shed some tears...(only half-kidding...).

So what's the moral of the story? Where am I going with this? Self-acceptance. Sometimes, we just have days like this. Sometimes, we just have a lifetime like this. I can blame Ben for making me do an insane workout that left me immobile (I like this idea!), I can blame myself for being a total klutz-and-a-half, I can believe that I'm a horrible yoga teacher for being so clumsy, or I can just accept that it was just a tough day, and now it's over. That I'm a *slightly* clumsy person, but that's okay. It's similar to what Judith Lasater says in Living Your Yoga when speaking about a difficult pose, "Neither the pose nor the teacher are to blame. The difficulty was there all along. The yoga pose just helps you experience it, and it is hoped, release it." So this is me experiencing and releasing it!

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What's one part of your personality, character, or physical body that you critique all of the time? How can you move towards self-acceptance--towards accepting what is?

Had a really rough day or rough moment lately? Take a moment to ponder how you reacted, and think about how it would change if you just accepted it, and then let it go...

And watch out for that curb! Hehe :)

Namaste,
Mary Catherine

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