As part of doing a senior project at Cleveland Yoga, we have to read one of the books by Baron Baptiste. Joni and I chose "40 Days to Personal Revolution". The book starts off by explaining the twelve laws of this practice, and then it goes into a routine of yoga poses, a plan for a balanced diet and a plan for each week. So far I am still on the laws. They're pretty philosophical and as an 18-year-old its hard to apply them to my own life, seeing as there aren't any major problems I am currently facing. I feel like the book would be really beneficial for a middle-aged person who may have gone through some difficult life experiences and needs some help. There is one law, though, that has stayed in my mind throughout some of the more difficult classes i'm taking. Law 7 says to Relax with What Is and the author gives an example of being in an intense, hip-opening pose. As the pressure and discomfort of the pose builds, Baptiste says we have three options we are faced with" 1) run away (come out of the pose), 2) stay and struggle or 3) stay, relax, and discover what is really there. Now every time a teacher has us hold any challenging pose- not just hip-openers- for an extended period of time, I come back to those three choices. The last one is obviously easier said than done, but if you can quiet your mind long enough, it really does work to become less resistent. I also feel like those 3 choices can be applied to most tough situations in life. If you start training yourself to stay and sit with discomfort in a yoga class, then later on in life, when you face something difficult, you'll instinctually choose to do the same thing instead of running away from it. It seems there is a lot to be learned from a yoga practice, that it's not just a workout.
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