Self-regulation is a practice, not a trophy to be won. — Yoga The World

Running used to be my meditation, my exercise, and my reset. It only now occurred to me how much of a similar function as yoga running used to have in my life.

I thought about it as I tried to sit in stillness this morning and just couldn’t find the rhythm. I looked at my clock every 3 minutes, and felt restless and fidgety for the full sit. But still I sat. And still I felt better, more rested, more focused at the end of it.

Running used to be like that. Always those first 2–3 minutes of finding the rhythm, where the ground felt hard and inhospitable, and the distance ahead way too long. But most days I’d soon settle into a cadence that worked, my body remembering what it needed to do, and the rhythmic breathing and inherent mind-body regulation that comes with it for me compelling me forward. And even on those rare days where the entire run was somehow “off,” I felt better at the end of it. As if the running had done something to my body-mind-soul complex to help it, despite itself.

I can’t run any more for any number of aging body-parts reasons. But I can sit. And I can flow. And I find tremendous solace in this fact. It tells me I will always be able to find a way to self-regulate. That it will always be a challenge, and that I can always work at it.

In short: that it is a practice rather than a trophy to be won.

I like that.

Originally published at https://www.yogatheworld.org on August 24, 2022.