stretching out

One of my favorite things to do is yoga. WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, just you WAAAIIIIIT..before you stereotype me and label me and judge me let me go on. There are many kinds of yoga. Here in Budapest I practice ashtanga yoga. My teacher's name is John. He is originally from Philadelphia but has lived all over the world, making Budapest his home for the past 3 years. We practice in a beautiful orange building, next to a warm and cozy tea-house. It is a couple blocks from my apartment and right across the street is a little plaza with a quaint little park. My friend Peter turned me onto this place and we have made it into a ritual. If you come over, I'll introduce you to Peter, he's one of a kind and we are always laughing. And I mean the from-the-bottom-of-your-gut laughing where you can't remember what made you start in the first place. LOVE IT. Oh and by the way, Peter is from the Arctic Circle. YES-reread that last sentance. How sweet is that? So picture this 6'5" big, thick lumberjack kind of guy, who can track, hunt, and kill a caribou and then sleep in its body cavity to survive.....doing yoga. So, yoga is good for the body but boy does my body just screeeam the day after my yoga sessions. But it is such a good way to end the week, or begin it for that matter. Stress release. Anyways, point of the story is this: in ashtanga yoga you are told to lead your motions with squared shoulders, or "with your heart" as John says. And again, before you roll your eyes at me, YES I CAN SEE YOU ROLL YOUR EYES, let me go on. This is important in more than just yoga. It irritates me when people give me advice as though nothing can steer me off course or affect how I rank and order my preferences. Guess what folks---that's life and we don't live in a vaccum. You are supposed to be affected. It's not a bad thing. It becomes a bad thing when you sit and dwell or get blown around like a fragile little leaf. That's not me. But I do make decisions with much more than my brain. I hope you do too.