Crouching on my bed on hands and knees, I cupped my head in clenched hands as I took a few long deep breaths, praying that the pounding in my head would stop.
I felt the softness of the bed, the warmth of my partners still warm spot the smell of toast coming from the kitchen. I listened to the bedlam that accompanies the morning rush as my children and partner get the day started.
Completely aware of the pain in my head but feeling the relief in each inhale and the pain ebb in each exhale, I continued to breathe absorbing all the sounds that when I awoke I could not bear to hear. Hunched on my bed, I was getting better, I was doing yoga.
The migraine was leaving.
Earlier, that morning I had woken up with a premenstrual migraine.
An older version of me would have been rushing around the house frustrated and angry resentful of all that had to be done to get the “gang” out the door on time. Focusing only on the intensity of the pain. This was also my typical behaviour when things didn’t “go my way” in any situation.
This time however, rather than reacting to my pain I used my voice and communicated to my partner what it was that was wrong and what I needed from him.
This experience made me realize just how simple it is to express what it is that I need and why it is ok to ask for help, a simple request changed me. In that moment when I asked for help, I was “doing yoga”.
There’s a misconception that yoga is about being bendy and learning how to relax. Yoga is much more than that, yoga teaches us to be kind and gentle to ourselves. To bring our attention to our breath and reflect before we act and to ask for help when we are in a perceived or real negative situation.
Yoga is about asking for help, taking help when it is offered and turning off preconceived notions.
Tomorrow I get up with the gang, and my Sweet Babu can linger…
Can you do it? Will you ask for help even when you think you should not because it seems its not the right time?? That the schedule or others are more important? Or can you practice “Yoga”?