Yoga and Life Lesson: Be Flexible

Oct 4, 2016 | Camping, Outback Australia: Recorded | 6 comments

I’ve been learning a bit about flexibility lately. I thought i was was a reasonably flexible person. And I don’t just mean being able to fold up in Uttanasana like a Swiss Army knife.

The Wet Rock - Flexibility at Uluru

I mean mental/emotional flexibility. I used to be quite glib in my yoga teaching: ‘work on your suppleness and this will make you mentally limber.’

Maybe it’s true for some. But I think not for me.

During our travels around NSW, Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria, Daniel and I have been dogged by wet, cold weather.

For awhile, we tried to strategise our way out of bad weather. That is, we would outrun it or delay our stays in what we thought might be propitious camp grounds. The unseasonably rainy, chilly weather pattern kept pace with us. It rained in Queensland, at Uluru, in the extreme desert of Coober Peedy, in the Flinders Ranges,and all along the Great Ocean Road.

It reached a point where the weather got me down. But since the pattern was stubbornly entrenched, I realised I was going to have to have an attitude adjustment and utilise some flexibility.

I must have some reserves of resiliency, whether they come from yoga practice or simply getting older. I did get the ‘adapt now’ message relatively early in our travels. Adapting meant being content with all the advantages of a wet winter and spring.

Everywhere we’ve driven, and even including the desert, there have been vistas of green. And more shades of green than I could possibly name. Insects have been virtually nonexistent. The air–the air!–loaded with ozone, feels like a beauty treatment for your skin and a cleansing for your lungs. Our food supplies didn’t go off: fruit lasted for days and weeks.

In just a couple of weeks, I’ll be home again, and taking up all the comforts of my routine life. I’ll be able to control elements that I couldn’t on the road. Life will get back to normal, but perhaps not be as challenging.

However, I know a little bit more about resiliency, and that important niyama, Saucha, contentedness. Here’s a little video clip for you to enjoy and get the flavour of our trip (made on a rare warm, sunny day).

6 Comments

  1. Oh dear …. sounds like the rain has been s challenge Friends Eve & Daniel. As you say though, green everywhere is as rear as rocking horse pooh where you’ve been travelling though. And of course, rain is life !!! It wil be nice to be returned to all the creature comforts of the Shedders soon enough. Stay safe my weary travellers and see you real soon. Bug LUVS, Poida ?

    Reply
    • And just to help with decompression, Peter, we have six days in Sydney. The green grasses and gardens of home will look so beautiful!

      Reply
  2. Your videos and stills have given us semi-sedentary dudes such bursts of light, delight and background and forefront beauty (including you two in front of the camera) all through your trip. Thanks for being so inclusive and creating ways of sharing it so vividly.
    Maybe there will be some “I want to be back out there” days after you get back which I will quite understand! And we are looking forward to having you home. Only 12 sleeps?

    Reply
    • Yes, that’s human nature, isn’t it? When it’s cool we want it hot…always wanting what it’s not.
      Looking forward to home, own bed, yoga shed and you!

      Reply
  3. Ohh, I am so glad I stayed watching to hear your vulnerability expressed so simply & humanly, Eve. In my own travels, “I wanna go home” has struck with ferocity at various stages & whilst not entirely unexpected, is not always welcome nonetheless. Good on you for keeping it real – the shadows and the rain and the lying down phases of existence are equally as vital to our growth as the sun and the light and more upright, goal directed movements.

    Reply
    • Lovely feedback, Mischa, and wise words. Thank you!

      Reply

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