Two By Two By Two.
I’ve been noticing a lot lately how disruptive it is when a new student comes to practice Bikram yoga for the first time– with a friend.
They look at each other instead of at their own reflection.
They often giggle when something is confronting–
They whisper to one another when it all gets too hard.
They ask to borrow the others water bottle.
The teacher having to ask again, and again, and again, ever so politely that there be no conversation in the room– that the eyes should always be focused at the centre of their vision. Straight ahead. Inward.
This has been happening a lot lately in class.
And has, subsequently got me thinking a lot about some of the most exquisite experiences I have had, and how they’ve often been alone.
With no one to turn to, or to blame the mind roams free. It goes wherever it fancies and meets whom ever it pleases. It never feels pressure to respond in a certain way, or to laugh, or to leave. It flies. It flies a lot.
Today in class I was thinking about all the couples I knew who’d relocated to Tokyo– together– while I was living there. How they’d seldom go the distance. I always thought because they had each other to bitch to, to blame, to resent, lament. Where as I just had myself. I explored loads of things and only ever felt alone– which is different.
I recently did an intensive Sahaja yoga meditation day with two girlfriends. It wasn’t until we all piled in to the car and headed to our destination that it occurred to me that we are all likely to have different experiences and that one–or more of us– may wish to leave prematurely.
Thankfully for all three of us the day was a bit of a menopausing tea and biscuits demographic– which is cool– but hardly warranted an entire day of my life that I am never going to get back in full.
My point being, I wonder if there could be some sort of way we could force each other to do more things alone. Maybe force is the wrong word. And maybe I could just mention it to some of my mates from time to time.
x.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-BIp7yeJ94
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alexandrajeancoffey
A Year With Leonard Cohen... 