Being back in Japan for a prolonged period of time means a few things:
• I have to change my eating habits so my weight doesn't drop
• Living is more expensive
• I get to eat different foods and drink different drinks
• I rely heavily on the internet to keep in touch with friends and family
• Yoga challenges
The last time I was here, my personal practice really blossomed, but something else happened: my personal practice encompassed a lot of internal work. I did a lot more work nowhere near a mat, more work in my head, and incremental work at the drop of a hat and sometimes throughout a whole day, only to continue the next. It's tiring at times.
In literature and in my classes (as an teacher trainee and as a student) the niyama of Brahmacharya was occasionally addressed. Usually, it's painted in the context of conserving and not being reckless with sexual energy. However, I've gradually come to extend it to personal energy in general, and some of my instructors have presented it as such as well. Since the standard definition poses me little problem when I'm on tour, I've had plenty of opportunity to explore the broader view. For me, the practice of Brahmacharya is tied directly to a practice of compassion, chiefly self-directed compassion.
I have been finding it increasingly necessary to be attentive to my energy needs and my energy output. We recently finished two months of shows in Sapporo. Normally, my work week is six days of shows, with one day off, totaling 14 shows. This was the show's first time in Sapporo in 89 years and although the run started a little slowly, ticket sales took off after the third week. Shows were being added weekly; sometimes two-show days became three-show days, but more often than not, a three-show day became a four-show day.
I had just started to work out again, with three times a week being my normal regimen. Once extra shows were being added, I started tapering off and eventually stopping. I needed to exercise to be at my best and now I wasn't doing enough; I was getting skinny again, losing muscle definition and tone. I was being lazy about a commitment I had made to improve and maintain my body. I wasn't even practicing yoga. What kind of lazy, useless excuse was I becoming?
As it turned out, I was saving my physical energy for shows, but I had started transferring some of it to emotional energy. That emotional energy was being expended as frustration and I was taking it out on myself. That was neither conserving energy nor channeling it effectively. When it comes to emotional energy, I'm better than I used to be, but am not yet where I would like to be. I have much to work on yet and I could definitely work more on being more compassionate with myself.
Most of all, I have to learn to be okay with the fact that I'm not there yet and that it's a journey rather than a destination. In this case, a journey within a journey.
• I have to change my eating habits so my weight doesn't drop
• Living is more expensive
• I get to eat different foods and drink different drinks
• I rely heavily on the internet to keep in touch with friends and family
• Yoga challenges
The last time I was here, my personal practice really blossomed, but something else happened: my personal practice encompassed a lot of internal work. I did a lot more work nowhere near a mat, more work in my head, and incremental work at the drop of a hat and sometimes throughout a whole day, only to continue the next. It's tiring at times.
In literature and in my classes (as an teacher trainee and as a student) the niyama of Brahmacharya was occasionally addressed. Usually, it's painted in the context of conserving and not being reckless with sexual energy. However, I've gradually come to extend it to personal energy in general, and some of my instructors have presented it as such as well. Since the standard definition poses me little problem when I'm on tour, I've had plenty of opportunity to explore the broader view. For me, the practice of Brahmacharya is tied directly to a practice of compassion, chiefly self-directed compassion.
I have been finding it increasingly necessary to be attentive to my energy needs and my energy output. We recently finished two months of shows in Sapporo. Normally, my work week is six days of shows, with one day off, totaling 14 shows. This was the show's first time in Sapporo in 89 years and although the run started a little slowly, ticket sales took off after the third week. Shows were being added weekly; sometimes two-show days became three-show days, but more often than not, a three-show day became a four-show day.
I had just started to work out again, with three times a week being my normal regimen. Once extra shows were being added, I started tapering off and eventually stopping. I needed to exercise to be at my best and now I wasn't doing enough; I was getting skinny again, losing muscle definition and tone. I was being lazy about a commitment I had made to improve and maintain my body. I wasn't even practicing yoga. What kind of lazy, useless excuse was I becoming?
As it turned out, I was saving my physical energy for shows, but I had started transferring some of it to emotional energy. That emotional energy was being expended as frustration and I was taking it out on myself. That was neither conserving energy nor channeling it effectively. When it comes to emotional energy, I'm better than I used to be, but am not yet where I would like to be. I have much to work on yet and I could definitely work more on being more compassionate with myself.
Most of all, I have to learn to be okay with the fact that I'm not there yet and that it's a journey rather than a destination. In this case, a journey within a journey.
