Personal Challenge...

Earlier this week I had a rough day.  It started out rushed and busy and just continued, so I decided to go to yoga.  What I figured was I could take a few moments to center myself and calm my nerves.  Unfortunately or fortunately, it seems the universe chose to use this yoga class as a teaching moment.

During a yoga class the goal is to turn your thoughts inward to forget about the outside world and those around you.  This is hard enough for me since my mind is always crazy busy, but I'm working on it.  This week the person on the mat beside me was very disruptive.  They kept stopping during class not really trying the poses and fanning themselves (it's hot yoga....it's going to be hot).  To add to the frustration they had a plastic disposable water bottle that was really crinkly.  

None of these offenses are particularly bad, and essentially this person was not enjoying the yoga class.  However, since this person was beside me and I had a frustrating day already, I starting getting irritated.  The whole class was a practice in how to refocus my mind inwardly.  It's such a challenge to forget about what is going on around you and just focus on your breathe and body movements only.  

That whole class was a personal challenge both physically and mentally.  The positive thing is that I made it through and got practice re-centering to try and not acknowledge distractions that take me out of the yoga practice.