Yoga and the Bucket

Yesterday I found myself in that not-so cool position of presenting information on a book I have not read. It was actually just a few points from a book I hadn't read. Anyway, I did what I did in high school. I read the web version of cliff notes. The title of the book is "How Full is Your Bucket." The jist of this book is that in every interaction we have we are either putting good stuff in other people's buckets or we are scooping stuff out of their bucket. In addition, when we put stuff in other people's buckets, our bucket gets fuller & the fuller our bucket, the better we feel. Seems reasonable enough to me, seems like we all want a full bucket.

The concept of this book reminded me of my yoga bucket. I feel happier and am more likely to get on the mat if I remember there are lots of different ways to practice. The practice can be tailored to my life.

I was in the Monday afternoon Ashtanga class and it occured to me that the practice was feeling fantastic because of the structure the ashtanga primary series offers. When you practice Ashtanga, you never need to wonder what comes next, because the sequence of poses is always the same. At that moment in my life,I was needing structure on and off my mat.

I was in Yin class, and it occured to me that the practice was feeling fantastic because I had no idea what was coming next, my body was trying new things and I
found a strength I didn't know I had. That day, I realized I needed to be more present and not spend so much time in the imagined future.

I was in vinyasa flow class and remembered I love practicing to music and I loved how the changing sequence of familiar poses was refreshing. On that day, I was
needing to remember that when life starts to feel a little lackluster, I can take what I allready know and just change it up a bit.

I was feeling crazy stressed and practiced three part breathing while in the car. At that moment, I needed the opportunity to allow my breath to drop down into my belly and assist in taking my nervous system off high alert.

I had time on Saturday afternoon to get in a long slow practice. On that day, I was desperately needing time without other people, I needed to move slowly
and allow space for devotion to some presence larger than myself.

This morning I had a short practice in my hotel room with the sun shining in my third floor window. I had very little time, but wanted the opportunity to take care of my body before sitting in a day long meeting.

As I reflect on this, I have a variety of yoga tools to use in my daily life. Yoga has the potential to help us fill our own buckets and in turn, have the
energy to fill other people's buckets.