Benefit of the Doubt

One of my family members designs music CD covers and packaging. From time to time, this family member works with artists who write yoga meditation music or chanting. In her experience, these artists can be some of the rudest and most unpleasant clients to work with. 

As you can imagine, this seems to be quite the paradox. You would think that (assuming these artists practice yoga) these people would be all Zen’d out and mellow and pleasant. 

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I started doing yoga in high school. I didn’t know it at the time, but I did. I used to love getting on the floor and stretching my little heart out for a half an hour or an hour at a time. Later in life, when I started to read more about yoga, I realized that all those stretches were actually yoga asanas. 

Over the last decade or so I finally established a regular asana practice. Undoubtedly, I do yoga for the physical benefits. But I wanted to go deeper with my practice; over the last, maybe 3 years, I added pranayama (breath work) and meditation for the potential emotional and spiritual benefits. 

As I have already mentioned, I totally have a type A personality. And, as many who know me will attest, I frequently have trouble with pessimism, being patient and controlling my anger. These issues are often the focus of my meditative efforts. 

 

The last week or so has been particularly trying in our house. Nothing truly terrible, thank God. What it comes down to is: money. What else is new, right? My hubby recently decided to invest in a bit of continuing education. It was something we’d planned and it didn’t break the bank, but it was still a hefty chunk o’ change. 

The other weekend, when I was doing laundry, the washer just stopped mid-load. I have no idea why. I fussed with it and got it to work again; and with a few stop and starts, I was able to finish the laundry for the week. But the reality is that we’re going to have to have it either repaired or replaced. Then, the other night before I headed up to bed, I turned on the dishwasher. Water promptly began to pour out of the bottom corner of the machine. At 11:45pm. Finally, the “service engine” light is on in my car and today there was a terrible electric-burning smell wafting through the air when I got home after picking the boys up from school. So, after investing some cash into the huz’s professional future, we have two major appliance purchases and potentially major car repairs upon us.

 

I’m not too proud to say that in times of stress such as these, I am wont to throw myself a pity party. However, I shocked myself when I talked myself off the ledge this week! It was like an out-of-body experience. I found myself calmly thinking, “ok, stop. It’s only stuff. It’s only money. No, it’s not convenient, but we have good jobs and we can manage this. We’re all healthy and happy and have a lot to be grateful for, so just chill.” 

Who is this person?!

 

Aaaaaaanyway... That got me to thinking about that conversation with my family member who works in the CD biz. And I thought, maybe those yoga music peeps are just people like me. Maybe angry and impatient and sometimes rude. But maybe they’re practicing yoga to improve those qualities.