This month the Mind Body Messenger is a few weeks late as I have had a hard drive crash on my system,  the repairs weren’t finished before had to head out of town for a week to teach, and then on my way home my luggage was lost.  Sounds like a crisis, and usually I would be feeling like the world was against me, but instead I’ve had the pleasure to discover that yoga has been working on me in some wonderful ways.

Sometimes progress in yoga is more overt; being able to stand steady in Tree Pose without falling over, or being able to touch your toes (finally!). But, it’s the sneaky ways that yoga works on you that may be the most profound. Dealing with a computer crash, travel stress and lost luggage could have caused a high degree of stress and suffering. But, somehow, when faced with these complications I surprised myself with a great deal of equanimity.

In the past, computer troubles would have me heading to the toolbox for a hammer. But, with a hard drive crash and potential loss of years of work, I found myself somehow unattached. I created those files, I can create them again, maybe even better this time. And my luggage, well it will turn up. In the meantime I have other clothes, a backup toothbrush, and hey, an extra day without doing a week’s worth of laundry isn’t such a bad thing.

It has been nice to realize that yoga has been working on my ability to respond rather than react, and to take the ups and downs in life with a little less stress. So, when you have those moments when you wonder why you do yoga, remember that yoga isn’t just helping you hold Plank or touch your toes, but it’s helping you to deal with unexpected circumstances with a bit more equanimity, and perhaps being graceful about conflicts and crises can help not only you, but the lady at the lost luggage counter too!

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