redefining wealth

I went back to yoga last week, after nine months off.

I always love going to yoga, I love taking movement classes because I get direction but really get to sink into my body and figure out my alignment that day by translating the verbal cues of the teacher into physical movement. 

Last week, I was behind a group of people who had come together and who must have been fairly new to movement classes: they wobbled a lot, had no connection between their lower and upper bodies, didn’t have the strength to hold the tactile corrections from the teacher or the awareness to make them on their own. It’s where all of us begin and, with consistency, move through it. For me, though, it forced me to appreciate all the classes, sessions, techniques, sports and methods I have taken and studied over the years. Watching the people in front of me moving just exactly like you’d expect novices to move made me appreciate where I am with my body.

I’ve been so sick that I haven’t worked in four weeks, and as I am self-employed, I don’t get paid when I don’t work and I’d been fretting about money—chronic illness depletes every aspect of life. But then in class, I had this moment of understanding that wealth comes in many different forms and I was thankful for the wealth of knowledge I have of my body, the wealth of awareness and experience and that I now know when to stop and when to push and can take class and constantly be evaluating my alignment.

Each of the group in front of me, as does each of us, has a wealth of something in their lives. I am often aware of the negative in my life, of those things I lack and it was such a boost to take a moment to recognize and appreciate something that I enormous quantities of.