Letting go

I've listened to Coldplay's x+y album on my way to and from work again this week - I'm really hooked on that album and have been, with breaks, ever since I first heard it. For some reason especially the song The Hardest Part has spoken to me. Funny, because the notion of letting go seems to surround me a lot lately, especially as I read more about Eastern philosophy these days. I finished the part on India today in the book "Eat, Pray, Love" I have previously talked about and I felt really amazed and inspired by her experience in an ashram. How much heaviness she let go off in months of prayer and meditation. I guess that is because I well know that I have a lesson or two to learn in letting go (e.g. of the idea of going to Grad school this year should I not get accepted)... And, again, yoga seems to be helpful. I realized today how much that, too, has to do with letting go. Letting go of tension and tightness in mind and body, mainly. The teacher is a real inspiration as a person and a yogi. She seems so weightless/balanced/at peace with herself and the world (I'm always amazed when I meet people like that...they seem so wise...which is even more impressive when they are under 85 years of age) and you should see how easily she folds and bends her body into all of these poses!!! It looks so easy, but let me tell you...there is no such thing as "easy" or slouching in yoga! Even what looks like "just" lying down or standing up straight turns into an endevour of tightening muscles and releasing tension and balancing hips and breathing right (which you tend to forget when you're in standing on your shoulders trying hard not to tip over). It's amazing how much it forces you to be in the present (and thus to let go of contemplating the past and wondering about the future) - with all your mind and every cell of your body, it seems (there literally is no part that is left out in yoga...down to fingertips and toes, guys!). Pretty cool. And after today I know for a fact that I will wake up being absolutely sore tomorrow. But...Here's the strange part: I actually don't mind. I like it, it's good pain. Yes, pain can be good....say I, the pain-whimp.

Namaste...