Sometimes You’re The Windshield and Sometimes You’re the Bug

Life can be such a series of ups and downs. One day you are going along, happy and hopeful, and the next day you are faced with challenges beyond comprehension. It is always a dance.

My youngest daughter just got married in April of this year. She and her new husband have been in the process of buying a house. It has been one hopeful moment followed by disappointment one after another with this. One day all looks good, the next day they hit a glitch. Their lives have been quite stressful over the last several weeks. My daughter, who is just 22, has come to me several times in tears, and several times glowing with excitement during this ordeal. The other day, I was telling my sister about the ordeal they were going through and her response was simple – “sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.” It struck me as being so funny, mainly because it was so true.

We will always have ups and downs, joys and sorrows, light and dark, windshields and bugs. We can’t change that. On the days we are the windshield things are fine, but on the days we are the bug, well, that’s a little different. We will always have those bug days – we can’t change that – but what we can change is our reaction to it.

Challenges are a part of life, that is for sure. We are going to be reactive, that is also a part of life. How we choose to react, however, is a different story. Life is also about choices; on those days when we are the bug about to hit the windshield, if we just roll with it, maybe we won’t…splat!

Our yoga practice teaches us to work within our own abilities, but then the teacher calls out a pose that maybe isn’t so comfortable for you. How do you react to it? With a sense of dread? Do you hold your breath? Do you tense up? Learning to face challenges within your own level of abilities can be quite the challenge in itself. To find some ease in your effort makes those challenges a little easier to digest. I have found that relaxing, taking a deep breath, calming the reactive mind make for a happier day. When we can apply our yoga practice to everyday life, things start to work better. In yoga classes we have ups and downs; some poses makes us feel wonderful and relaxed while others challenge us and make us leave our comfort zone, at times maybe even making us feel like failures. When that happens, learning to calm the reactive mind gives us greater joy in our yoga practice and everyday life.

So on those days that are less than perfect, calm the mind by focusing on what you can do instead of fretting about what you can’t. Even when you are heading straight for the windshield!

[tags] ups, down, stress, joy, yoga, light, dark, windshield, bug, challenges, abilities, breath, relax [/tags]