Sometimes all I look forward to all day is my shower— All alone. No one asking me for anything for an entire ten minutes. Heaven.
Today, I really needed that time. My two month old was being especially needy all day, so as soon as my husband walked through the door, I promptly handed her off and headed upstairs.
No sooner did I hop in the shower did my three year old waltz into the bathroom to take a poop that more closely resembled something a 40 year old man would produce the morning after a plate of hot wings and beer. Throughout his evacuation, he excitedly yelled about all the imaginary bad guys that were coming into the bathroom. All the while, I could hear my newborn wailing in the distant background.
So much for a little me time.
How does this relate to yoga, you might ask? Well, for me, it started with the mistake I made in having lofty shower expectations. Yogic philosophy warns us of the human suffering that comes from expecting things to go a certain way. The expectation of alone time set me up for unnecessary frustration when I didn’t get it. Years of practice has taught me that I have two choices in a moment like that— stay pissed off or laugh it off.
Today, I chose to laugh. I actually started laughing in the shower and my three year old curiously asked, “Mom, are you funny?” And I said, “I think YOU’RE funny.” And we promptly entered into a “Who is Funnier” contest.
Yogic philosophy also teaches us that all of this is temporary. The feeling of being touched out with young kids is a glimpse in time. One day, I will miss this time desperately, I know. Good health is temporary. Sickness is temporary. We are temporary. And this constant realization helps me remember my gratitude. Because in reality I love the whole of my life and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Thank the Universe for yoga!
This post was originally published on the The Yoga Loft Bethlehem blog.
Megan Ridge Morris, E-RYT 500, RPYT, YACEP, CD, is the co-creator of ChildLight Yoga’s Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training (also a Registered Prenatal Yoga School / RPYS) and brings her expertise off the mat as a Certified Doula. In addition, she facilitates the ChildLight Yoga for Babies & Toddlers Teacher Training and also serves as Administrative and Marketing Goddess for the ChildLight Yoga Trainings division. Megan discovered yoga in 2006 as an acting intern after graduating from Bloomsburg University with a degree in Theatre Arts. She's been studying yoga for over a decade and teaching as a full-time, professional yoga teacher since 2008. Megan completed a 500-hour teacher training through The Yoga Loft of Bethlehem and has been a co-teacher of their 200-hour teacher training program since 2009. She specializes in teaching yoga to beginners, expecting moms, babies and toddlers. She lives in Bethlehem, PA with her husband and two children.