You are good knees

Yesterday, the woman who usually teaches my Monday afternoon exercise class became ill, and the only person they could find to cover her class on short notice was a yoga instructor, who knows almost nothing about muscle conditioning. But she does know yoga, and so we did yoga.

This was my first yoga class, and immediately I jumped three spots on my skepto-meter. You remember those "how are you feeling today" fridge magnets that had the 20-odd faces you could choose from to display your mood? Yeah, move me to "cynical." My eyes sure did get stretched with all the rolling they did over "growing up like a flower" and "giving greetings to your inner sun." But right in the middle, she said something which resonated with me. During one difficult stretch, she said "if you cannot hold this stretch, do not be angry at your body. Your body is a good body. It supports you. Do not be ungrateful for it."

Lately, I have been ungrateful to my body, specifically my knees. They ache all the time, they pop and crack, they make me feel like an old person. But I should speak kindly to my knees. After all, they are only weak and aching because I pushed them too hard at an earlier point in my life. And they are still holding me up. And not only that, but they allow me to work-out hard, even if they might complain a bit about it the next couple of days.

Go speak nicely to and about your body. It is a temple. And it is holding you up.