Motivation logo

Lessons From the Mat

A lesson on remembering to be playful from my yoga mat.

By Thai CromerPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
Like

Remember to play.

I come to you directly after coming off of my mat this morning, after doing a Kemetic Sun Salutation, three times through. The lesson that was given to me this morning was: “REMEMBER TO PLAY.”

In the last two weeks of relocating to my childhood home with a divine purpose. I have only sewed into this purpose; moving home, meditating to remain in flow, grounding, seeing both western medical doctors, and holistic wellness practitioners for bodily health, detoxing, cleansing; sewing into my mind, body, and soul to prepare myself as a yogi that can be respected. This has been a time for me to come home, get grounded, rest, and find my Self in this new space, before I move forward, but the note for my yoga mat today reminded me to sew into some “play.”

Usually, for the sake of my morning ritual, I do one full Kemetic Sun Salutation to set my intention for the day, connect with my physical body, and bring vitality into my still-sleeping body. But in doing the sequence three times (partially to remind myself that there is no “rush,” there is no “next thing,” that the false master of “time” is begging me to do). I was able to better look into my body, see where the “kinks” were, noticing the quality of my breath, and vigor in each motion. Ultimately, I was able to play.

As coined by Adrienne of Yoga with Adrienne “No yoga robots!” Though Egyptian Yoga is all about balanced progression, and form to align the energy centers of the body for the highest quality of vitality, the lesson “play” came out of journeying from progression to progression with movement, exploration, light heartedness, and a sense of curiosity of my own form. Wiggling in places I don’t usually wiggle, lifting fingers, rolling the neck in slow seeking, etc.

In this lesson of play, my morning practice was filled with a sense of childlike wonder; from it the lesson to go out into the world today, and play, explore, try something new. There is a new heat, a different use of my breath, and an invigorated pep in my step to carry out into the rest of this day. Partnering this intention from my mat with the Yogi Complete Breathing recently learned in Science of Breath by Yogi Ramacharaka, I was able to have a much more vivacious, young, fun, practice.

Prior to this lesson, along with being very focused of my path and purpose, I’ve been reading The 10X Rule by Gordon Cardon; all about setting your targets higher than your goals, in order to maximize your success (the idea is in setting targets 10 times above your goal, you’ll not be disappointed in falling short, and achieving six times the goal, but you WILL be disappointed in underachieving your initially-set goal). In the spirit of “10X-ing” everything, my morning ritual and yoga practice has been one way through which, by the book, to move forward, and get ten times the value (or really the amount of things on my to do list done) out of my day.

Another beautiful insight from this lesson to play, is that I have been 10Xing my sun salutations all wrong! Instead of focusing on getting the Kemetic Sun Salutation right, and getting it done, the true value lies in making the sun salutation vast and wide; think out, instead of up, or being expansive in my geometric progression, rather than a vertical build. This lesson to play was the kemetic yoga version of the saying “life is short, but it’s wide.”

So! From my yoga mat this morning, through me to you, “REMEMBER TO PLAY!”

advice
Like

About the Creator

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.