Props are Your Friends

I will confess that the first time I took a yoga class, I sat on my mat--bare of other accessories, and felt a bit of smug pride as I watched other students pick up their blocks, blankets, straps & eye pillows.  I liked the simplicity of just-me-and-my-mat, and I had a deep down conviction that I was better at yoga already because I didn't need anything else.

I think many of us have this attitude towards props--something along the line of Real Yogis Don't Need Props.  And, like many others, I didn't start using them until I was injured.  Sometimes it takes a knock on the head to change my mind (or less metaphorically, a tweak to the psoas).  It came down to a choice of not doing yoga, or doing yoga with block.  And I started to like it, I got really tight with my block.  And since I was already using a block, why not try a strap?  Soon I was setting up with 2 blocks, a strap and a blanket every class--just in case I might want them.

Props became another way to discover new depths to certain poses, or greater relaxation.  We're friends these days.  Of course, I have Jasper's example as well--props are for playing!

In Pursuit of Samadhi (via dark chocolate)

I love chocolate.  I particularly love dark chocolate--which has the advantage of most serotonin kick per calorie.  Sirius Icelandic chocolate, 70% cacao, is my current addiction.  I find I only need to eat one row, or four squares, or roughly eight bites, to reach a state of bliss.

I had a teacher once illustrate the concept of samadhi (sometimes translated as bliss, or a state of oneness with the universe) with the moment of biting into really amazing chocolate--that intense absorption of all the senses in chocolateness.  I think it's a valid comparison.

But then there's those times when I've been looking forward to eating some chocolate, say it's been a difficult day, or I've been saving it as a reward for dealing with something unpleasant.  And I finally get there--I'm sitting down, I've unwrapped the chocolate, broken off my allotted squares, I take the first bite (really savoring it), and then it occurs to me to check my email, or listen to a voicemail, or any of a thousand other things.  All of a sudden the chocolate is gone, and I never noticed eating it.  It's so disappointing, and all I really want to do is eat more chocolate, even though I know I don't need it.

Does this ever happen to you?  Something anticipated, some personal treat, that fails to satisfy?  It's easy to take yoga or meditation in a very ascetic direction, but I think we can apply the principles of focus and attention on the present moment to our pleasures as well.  After all, samadhi seems so much more enjoyable when it involves chocolate.