triangle

Day 5: Triangle

Today the instructor for the class was Iyengar based.   Much of what she said had to do with perfecting the nuances of each pose.  The class didn’t feel as spiritual as it was corrective.  One pose we focused on was triangle.  It was from practicing triangle that we could forward on to crescent moon.   We tried to perfect our triangles with blocks, which were fastened at various levels.  As we moved into the poses in proper form, she said “People complain about alignment.  They say that focusing on alignment takes away from the dance of yoga, but in reality when you have the alignment down, the proper form, it frees your body up to experience even more joy.”  The instructor’s phrases tended to be technical, but when she added just a few metaphorical life lessons in there, they were golden.

A triangle in short hand is the symbol for change, and today exemplified that.  This morning I had a group interview for a yoga teacher scholarship opportunity.  For 100 hours of grunt work, you get a 50% discount from the three month course.  The candidates were myself (a doctoral level psychologist) and another minority female (a recent law school graduate).  Both of us were dissatisfied in our chosen professions which generally are admired deeply by society.  But our career paths to this point lacked connection for us.  And here we were applying to be teaching assistants for a yoga teacher training program.   No college education was necessary for this.  I couldn’t help but think how did we both get here.  I didn’t feel it was a pure competition.  Our styles were opposite.  I was reserved and calm.  She was late, slightly hyper, and comedic in her responses.   Part of me felt due to her free schedule and incessant note taking during the meeting, she was a shoe in for the scholarship.  I took no notes, and hold a full time job.  I was unclear how competitive I appeared.  But I realize if it’s meant to be it will happen, if not now, then later.

As we were in the interview, the recent law school grad complained of her parents were unsupportive of her new profession as an actress and future yogi.  She felt the skills she learned as a lawyer were  useless.  The interviewers tried to convince her otherwise, “these good skill to have for starting businesses or consulting.’’   I  thought of my training as a psychologist and how it complemented my skills as a therapist.   We can’t look of our paths up to now as a waste.  If you realize how your education and training can build your foundation of  your life, then maybe it will free up the space for more joy to come in.