Day 53: The auto pilot thief

I don't always get what I want......but somehow, I seem to get what I need.  Tonight was 5:30 with Roberta.  Brazilian-bombshell-sweet-as-pie-til-she-traps-you-in-the-yoga-room Roberta.  Sometimes she singles out Reggi, but Reggi was not there.  So, I went in Reggi's spot and enjoyed Roberta's undivided attention during the first three postures.  Second set of half moon, left side, "go deeper Michelle, you can do it!" Second set of forward fold...."lock your knees Michelle!".  Third part of awkward, "squeeze your knees together Michelle!"  Ah, sweet pain!  I pushed myself so damn hard tonight.  Finally! 

Another thing I love about her is she constantly calls me out for coming in or out of things without waiting for her.  I blogged during the first 30 days about how she singled me out for turning my foot in triangle before she said the dialog.  Well, tonight I started to come out of half tortoise, realized she didn't say change and pushed myself back into it really quickly, hoping she didn't notice.  No such luck, ol' eagle eye starts talking in savasana "don't try to predict what I'm saying, listen to me and wait for me".  I knew she was talking about me, so I turned my head to the side, saw her staring right at me with a big smile and I nodded and gave her a big smile back, like "I know! I'm sorry!".  Anyway, the reason I say I love this about her is because it translates so very perfectly into my life outside the yoga room.  Sometimes I'm impatient or in a hurry or my mind is going a million miles an hour and I'm not fully listening or observing.  I catch myself doing this and try to just work on becoming present as soon as I am aware I'm in that state.  So learning to listen to the dialog, be totally present and not be on auto pilot in that room is so good for me.  I've done this yoga so many times that it's easy for me to fall victim to the auto pilot thief.  I call it a thief, because anytime we are not present in the current moment, we lose some of the value of that moment in and out of the yoga room.

So tonight was a great practice for the first time this week.  Roberta was just what the doctor ordered for me today.