MOdeRAtion

"If you put too much pressure on anything--your car, your body, your marriage--you're going to wear it out." These were the wise words of Bryan Kest, repeated often when I attended his power yoga classes in Santa Monica three years ago. They are words to live by, and yet, at the time, I failed to live by them. Staying true to my pattern of excess, I went to Kest's studio six days a week, each time for a ninety-minute session. A quick math equation tells me I was engaging in power yoga for nine hours a week. I am not Madonna. I do not have finely tuned muscles, a dietician, or a world-renowned personal trainer. Nine hours of any physical activity was too much for my underweight frame, which is why, after four months of die-hard devotion, I wound up injured, wearing a wrist brace, unable to do even one downward-facing dog pose. I discovered not long ago that my name appears in the word "moderation." All my life, I've known that this word is the key component of contentment: balance your career, your home life, your relationships, and personal life, and you might attain some sort of success in all areas. But it's taken me a long time--and many injuries, including one to my right knee, which barred me forever from my favorite sport, long-distance running--to strive for this in the physical realm. In the late 1990s, I watched Parkinson's disease consume my father's body. He chose not to do the prescribed stretches and fine motor skill exercises, and he quickly lost his flexibility, dexterity, and balance. Consequently, my father suffered many falls, caused a few minor car accidents, until finally he was hospitalized, permanently, until his death in 2000. So now, for me, athletic activity is no longer a question of force; it's a question of, do I want to maintain my balance and flexibility for as long as nature will allow? Is that important to me? The answer is yes. Recently, I began my own power yoga routine, three years post-injury. Since April, I have vowed to engage in my own thirty-minute routine composed of my favorite poses, three times a week. That's only ninety minutes a week, compared to the nine hours a week I once did. But ninety minutes a week is a whole lot more than nothing, and for me, I hope it equates to a lifetime of flexibility, and a stepping stone towards the ultimate goal: moderation. What area of your life might benefit from a little moderation?

MacBook Blogging

The problem with paragraph breaks seems to be inherent of Macs. If anyone has any advice, I still need it. Thank you!