I had this great adventure with my wife a few weeks ago. We had some friends camping out at Valcour Island on Lake Champlain. We weren’t able to stay overnight with them, but we decided to go out on a Saturday to hang out and then come back the same day. We did the short paddle across from Plattsburg to the island, and because the water was a little rough we decided that instead of paddling all the way to where we thought they’d be we would land and walk.
So we started walking through the tress and brush, having a hard time finding a trail, but figuring we were headed in the right direction. We ended up getting lost. We were sure it would be 20 minutes or less to where they were, but instead we walked for over an hour and couldn’t find them. It was really fun! We knew that we weren’t “really” lost, since we were on an island that wasn’t that big, and we’d find our way back to our boats somehow. But the excitement of the unknown, and the heightened awareness of the current moment that brought was really great. Every step had the possibility in it of finding our friends. We were just so hyperaware of our surroundings, and really enjoying it because we knew it would all work out ok.
Clearly, since I’m writing this, things did work out ok. We did end up finding our friends. But, really, the best part of the whole trip was the excitement created by being lost – by really focusing on the current moment – by having an adventure. It was so fun to be in a place we’d been before, on an island we’d been on before, but have it feel completely new and and full of awareness.
Bringing this back to yoga, we can cultivate that sense of adventure in our practice. Even when you practice a posture you’ve done hundreds of times, if you look at it with new interest, curiosity and adventure, it brings freshness. Being on the island of your yoga mat and looking for new adventure and insight about yourself is really what it’s all about. It just makes practicing more fun.
I’ve attached a 30 minute back bending class with that in mind — enjoy the adventure!
–John