Someone told me once that he was doing a finance MBA but absolutely hated accounting. So he took an advanced class in it. Seems counter-intuitive right? If you dislike something you should avoid it like the plague and hope it’ll go away. But what he discovered is that by getting deeper into it he found the beauty (yes beauty) in something he’d previously disliked. He disliked it because he didn’t get it. He hadn’t gone deep enough into it.

I read a bit about this on a Motherhood blog I found. I like #13, it’s so true.

“Sink into it. This is a yoga trick I learned several years ago. When you’ve just about had it with a pose, and your body is screaming at you to untangle!!! and you’ve lost all focus…just sink into it. Every breath, just sink a little lower, or stand a little taller, or whatever you’re doing that’s hard…do it a little more. Yes, it’s hard. Sink into it. When I start to get bored with the knockknock jokes or the diapers, just sink into it. This is my life. Live it deeper. Love it.”

This is a challenge in my home practice. When I reach my first edge sometimes I’m out of the pose before I’ve really thought about it. It’s like the aversion reflex is so familiar I don’t even notice that I’m running off to avoid any discomfort. I’ve been trying to get better at noticing that first edge and then staying for another breath or two. To use the edge as a reminder that it’s time to really notice what’s going on. But next time I’ll go a step further as the blogger suggests. I’ll make a point of just going deeper. To sink in and find the beauty in it.