I am learning how to practice yoga.  I fall in and out of love with it, never really feeling capable of holding the poses, or doing a deep enough twist, but always go back now and then for more.  Yesterday, I attended class with a woman who I really liked.  I easily could follow her instruction, and could visualize certain muscles or energy points “turning in,” “shooting out,” or “expanding” under her guidance.  We didn’t do anything especially difficult, in fact everything we did was extremely basic but slow and purposeful.   Little tweaks here and there, my body would go from ‘managing’ to “oh hell, oh, I see — there we go!”  Muscles trembling, dripping in sweat, and grunting in the 80 degree heated room, the three of us in the small studio managed to let out a laugh as the instructor said, “It hurts when you’re doing it right!”

It hurts when you’re doing it right.   Upon hearing these words, something clicked.  I felt validated.  We are talking about more than just yoga here.  Pushing through discomfort, change, or disappointment is formidable.  When a moment of serious transition is upon me, I want to go through it with as little feeling as possible.  That’s not very realistic though is it?  A little effort must be put into life in order to really live, for better or worse.  Being faced with serious situations is hard.  Working through them is uncomfortable to say the least.  It hurts.  It hurts your stomach, it hurts your head, it hurts your feelings.  But after the pain, things are always so much better.  When you take the power away from the pain, suck it up, and just go through it the way that you are meant to go through it in your unique situations, things get better so much quicker too.  It hurts when you’re doing it right.