YogaBudo

Speaking with a friend the other day, I mentioned that I needed to “get back to my mat..”  I mentioned that I had not practiced yoga in a few days and I felt a little off.  I had a budo lesson coming up as well.  I needed to practice, so I could practice...

The further I get into my budo practice, the more I need my yoga practice.  Yoga, the single longest-running discipline I have maintained in my life, keeps me centered in a way that nothing else can.  In the grand scheme of things, a few days off the yoga mat, especially en lieu of a vacation, are small and relatively harmless.  But, as I pursue simultaneous practices in these two disciplines, I find that I need more yoga than ever.

I am a yoga teacher.  I average about eight or nine classes a week on my schedule.  In addition, I train with my budo teacher twice a week.  In addtion to that, I really aim to practice yoga at a minimum of four times a week.  Doing the math, it’s a lot of… well…  practice.  Teach, train, take class.  Sometimes, depending on my schedule, I take a yoga class, teach two classes, then go and train with my budo teacher for two hours.  It’s a full time job, just keeping up the practice.

I am fortunate to have the flexibility (ha, get it??  flexibility?) in my life and schedule to allow for such a job.  But I am constantly reminded that I must practice for the sake of the practice.  I practice yoga first and foremost because I love it.  Secondary to that are the benefits, the feeling I get, the glow, the bendy spine, etc, etc,, etc..  Additionally, I practice budo because I love it.  I’m going on seven weeks with my teacher, which is relatively brief.  But, I do love it.  It fits me, and I practice and train for the sake of the practice.  One practice compliments the other.

I go to my yoga mat, I sweat, I work, I struggle to find balance.  I learn valuable lessons about gravity, alignment, my body’s limitations and my inner struggles.  I find concentration, determination, will-power, strength and focus.  When I practice budo, I find a calmer mind and all the focus I found on my yoga mat serves to direct me and help me to concentrate on the task at hand.  On my yoga mat, the feedback is internal.  My body and mind give me the responses.  I dialogue with myself.  Left hip forward, drop the right shoulder, relax the face..  In budo, I hear my teacher’s voice.  Relax your shoulder, just take the step, use the body drop, step and push..  One day, I hope to find my own inner dialogue with the budo.  For now, I hear my teacher’s voice directing and focusing me.

I need the yoga so I can do the budo.  Practice compliments practice.  At times it feels complex, pursuing both avenues with such intensity.  But it is no longer an option.  I go to one mat so I can go to the other.

Home base will always probably be my little black mat in the hot little orange room where I do my yoga.  I go back there day after day after day and face myself in the mirrors.  But I am finding that my time spent on that mat makes space in my life for my time on the other mat - in a (slightly) cooler dojo with my teacher.

At risk of exhausting the mataphor, I really believe that the world is our mat.  Life is our dojo and every breath we take is really our practice.  Yoga is no more confined to a studio lined with mirrors than Aikido and budo are confined to the tatami.  If I practice for the sake of the practice, I am always practicing.  I remain in right principle, with an open heart - suddenly practice is measure by lifetimes, not days and hours.  Just as it should be.