The earth proceeded through the vernal equinox this weekend — the moment when day and night, light and dark, are balanced. Even in southern California, it is definitively spring. The air is cool, the light is new. There is an undeniable feeling of rebirth. We are coming out of a year-long winter, a drawn-out season of anxiety. We are collectively rediscovering our balance.
I learned this weekend that yogis mark the vernal equinox by practicing 108 sun salutations. 108!
Why 108? Well, according to The Wellness Universe blog, the number 108 is auspicious in many religions and wisdom traditions: there are 108 names of Buddha, beads on a Catholic rosary, and 108 is a multiple of “chai” – the Hebrew word meaning both 18 and “life.”
I heard about this equinox practice during a “Zoom Shabbat.” Our wonderful Rabbi Amy Bernstein, who had been put through this practice earlier in the day by our mutual yoga teacher Nicole Sherman, noted an essential lesson she learned from her ordeal of 108 sun salutes: Life gives you hard things; you do them. You don’t have to tell yourself a whole big story about them. You get through them, moment by moment.
Listening to meaning she drew from the experience, I wondered, Could I do 108 sun salutations? What would it feel like? What might I learn? I resolved to try it.
During the 90 minutes it took me to get through them (twice as long, I might add, as our yoga teacher reportedly took), I jotted down the lessons that popped up for me. I wrote them down because I sensed that they would apply as much to life, and writing, as to yoga:
- No matter how well you think you can multitask, you cannot. (Don’t think you can keep count in your head.)
- Simple tools can help manage your task. (In this case, tally marks saved me).
- Take breaks if you need them.
- A change of venue can recharge you.
- Slow down; pay attention.
- Take lots of deep breaths.
- Everything is better when you can be present in the moment.
- You have the power to re-value something bad into something good (e.g. “I am so freaking tired I can’t keep going” can become “I am getting stronger.” Or, “this draft sucks” can become “I am one draft closer to getting it right.”)
- Don’t panic if you get lightheaded.
- Notice where things gets bumpy, and try something different next time it happens (and there will be a next time).
- Celebrate milestones on your way to a larger goal.
- Find new things in the familiar. (When days feel the same, small tweaks can make them unique.)
- Get lost in flow.
- Find strength in community — other people are on this path with you.
- As you near the end, each moment feels more precious.
- Drink plenty of water.
- Reward yourself for your accomplishments.
- Nothing, I mean nothing, beats a hot bath after a hard day.
Wishing you a week of balance and strength for whatever tasks you face.
Book Recommendation!
To bring this piece full circle, I must recommend Claire Dederer’s bestselling memoir, Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses, which I recently discovered while taking Claire’s online memoir class offered by Hedgebrook. (Hedgebrook offers many excellent online course, which you should check out here.)
Praise for Poser:
“Poser is a powerful, honest, ruefully funny memoir about one woman’s open-hearted reckoning with her demons.”–Dani Shapiro, The New York Times Book Review
“Why did Claire Dederer take up yoga? Short answer: for the same reasons that Elizabeth Gilbert changed her life in Eat, Pray, Love and to much the same funny, charming, self-deprecating, stealthily inspirational and (quite possibly) best-selling effect.”–Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“Funny, well-observed, and ultimately inspiring.”–People (four stars)
“Let me be honest about something: I love yoga, I live for yoga and yoga has changed my life forever — but it is very difficult to find books about yoga that aren’t incredibly annoying. I’m sorry to say it, but yoga sometimes makes people talk like jerks. Thank goodness, then for Claire Dederer, who has written the book we all need: the long-awaited funny, smart, clear-headed, thoughtful, truthful and inspiring yoga memoir. To simplify my praise: I absolutely loved this book.”–Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
Laura Nicole Diamond 