Balance In All Things.

I practise yoga daily. An exercise in my routine -  Stork Pose - requires that one stand upon one leg, the other foot placed against the top thigh, hands in prayer pose. I've noticed over the years, that I cannot do this pose while thinking about somethiing else - if I do, I begin to slowly topple sideways. Stork Pose requires that I pay attention only to Stork Pose. When I think, I fall over.

Hmm, can this idea be extrapolated into more of my daily life? (I've told you I'm a slow learner.) When I think, I fall over. Simple and clear, isn't it? But experience never stopped the stubborn, so I've spent an awful lot of time falling over, because I wanted to think, I was going to think, and no Al-Anon person was going to tell me I couldn't think...grumble snorf mutter...splat.

I have to laugh at my own intransigence, it's too frustrating otherwise. A couple of days ago, I had rolled out my yoga mat, and was going through the exercises with my mind on a business matter, quite unaware that I wasn't living in the moment until Stork Pose. I'd tried to balance quite a few times, before it dawned upon me that I was trying to practise yoga and design business advertising at the same time. (Writing that, it sounds even sillier than it did at the time.)

The instructor on my yoga dvd says at one point "...but slowly, slowly, as you begin to open up, you can go further..."  Yoga and 12 Step have that much in common; practise is required. One cannot begin at the advanced level, one must start wherever one is. It doesn't matter where we are when we begin, that's irrelevant. What matters is that we put this wisdom into practise, and try it out.

Before we know it, we can bend from the waist and place our hands flat on the floor, which seemed impossible at the start, when we could only reach the tops of our knees.

It sneaks up on us.

But only if we roll the mat out, and do the exercises. Watching the dvd while seated in a chair, or lounging on the couch doesn't work; nor does watching Al-Anon from the sidelines. We have to get down there on the floor, and try standing on one leg, regardless of how foolish we may feel. It will soon begin to feel natural, and we can delight in our progress.