Your yoga teacher says: “If you need it, just put your knees down.”
“Have you tried restarting your computer?”
Everyone ever: *insert eyeroll*
Picture this, I’m working on my homework. I have 100 tabs open on my computer - my homework and weekly assignments consist of digital readings, watching lectures and purposeful YouTube videos, group chats with classmates, and all my note-taking. I have some assignments that are due on Thursday and the rest are due on Sunday.
So…it’s obviously Thursday as I’m watching the video required for my homework and it’s not playing. It’s doing that stupid f*cking thing where that little icon just spins and spins. So, I did what any normal person would do: yell to my husband, “THE VIDEO ISN’T PLAYING, CLEARLY SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH OUR INTERNET.”
I close the browser window, open it back up…nothing. I yell again.
New idea: I’ll just play the video on my phone. While I’m playing the video on my phone my very awesome husband resets our internet router. I try again…nothing.
I watch the full lecture on my phone, complete my assignment, and decide I was done for the night. Nothing seems to be working. My husband said, “let’s just go watch a show.” Newsflash: we watch them on my computer and my computer isn’t playing video.
He has the AUDACITY to say, “have you tried restarting your computer?”
I mean what the f*ck, obviously not. Does anyone actually do that the first time around. It’s such a simple fix that no one understands, and it can’t really work everytime…can it?
So, I did and then….boom video working.
At that moment, the clouds above me open and a light shined down (okay actually Kyle, my husband, turned the light on because I was working in the dark,) I wondered how often I continue to put obstacle after obstacle infront of me. I realized I do it all the time, why do I continue to make my life more challenging?
I’d rather use my fingernail to open a box instead of walk to the other room and grab a pair of scissors.
I’d rather carry in every bag of groceries at once than make two trips.
I’d rather wait until the due date to crank out my homework, than work on it a little bit at a time.
I’d rather hold plank until my lower back hurts, than just put my knees down and keep the integrity of the pose. Ouch - it all comes back to yoga.
I say it all the time, and so does every other yoga teacher at YES: “if you need it, put your knees down.”
I wonder if I would have just restarted my computer from the very beginning, I wouldn’t have had to struggle bus watching the video lecture on my phone, I’d be able to open a box without ruining my fingernails or even taking twice as long to get it open, I’d be able to not put too much pressure on my shoulder while carrying groceries, and I’d actually build strength in plank instead of tweaking my back.
While these are all very basic and easy to follow obstacles, it made me wonder what other obstacles I continue to create for mysel over and over again. So, your yoga teacher says: “What obstacles are you creating in your life? Can you just put your knees down where you need?”
Need a boost to help with this concept? I love Ryan Holiday’s Book Obstacle Is the Way