You Don't Have to Like the Medicine, You Just Have to Take it

The title of this blog was once said by a man that works at the gym that I work at. He's a really sweet guy that works at the food counter, and every time I walk out of class he asks me "How did it go?" To which I answer depending on how it went. One day I said, "I gave them a lot of core work and I think they got a little mad at me." And then he said compassionately, "Well, you don't have to like the medicine, you just have to take it."

The other day I took a huge dose of my own medicine, and it was quite bitter. 

The other day I was driving home and on the off ramp of the freeway to my exit there is a merge lane that merges over to the right. As I got off, I was in the merge lane and the lady to my right wouldn't let me over.  More realistically she didn't see me. So being the little Californian brat that I am, I sped up to beat her, but couldn't and alas had to honk my horn so that she wouldn't hit me. All in all...we were both pissed off at each other via road rage. We got to a stop light, she was behind me, and in the review mirror I looked at her and she lipped to me with a cold grimace, "NICE."  Holy smokes I was mad. I got home, turned off my car, and was still mad. I kept replaying the incident in my head, and although that woman had driven off and I will probably never see her again, the situation was just playing over and over and over. In grander perspective, this minor incident didn't matter, but for whatever reason it just kept re playing in my mind; I really wanted to stay clinging onto it. Finally I pushed it over enough to make room for my yoga practice.  I had to consciously stop and say to myself, "its over move on".  For about an hour after that my mind was completely on my practice and not that incident. Breathe, alignment, deepening...these were the only things that occupied my headspace for a good hour.  By the time shavasana (corpse pose) came around, I was lying there as per usual, palms up to receptivity...and suddenly this direct instruction came into my head that said to me, "offer love, forgiveness, and peace to this woman you were mad at earlier."  Let it be known...I really didn't want to.

But sometimes you don't have to like the medicine, you just have to take it.

 It was medicine for me to open my heart and offer love and compassion to this stranger. So I did. I took a moment, a deep breath, and softened myself to the thought of this woman; to wish her happiness and personal wealth.  After I made that very difficult choice to wish her happiness I felt this huge weight lift off of me. That's when I came face to face with the burden of holding grudges.  Pride, ego, and self entitlement are so easy to indulge in with us humans. This incident has come to me to demonstrate the medicinal benefits of forgiveness. It cures us from tension and mental stagnation.  After I crossed that very rocky road towards forgiveness, empathy started to play in.  Maybe she had a bad day; maybe her neck hurt her and she didn't want to twist to look in the mirror; maybe I was being the brat that sped up when really I should have slowed down.  All the maybes are important, but only in that they are the building blocks to the triumph of forgiveness and compassion. By the end of my practice I felt blissful.

From this experience I understood how hard it is to forgive and wish well for another that you felt harmed you.  But it is so essential for your personal growth!  Upon further reflection, I remembered the exact meditation technique that deals this this type of situation.  This technique is called Metta Meditation. I'll post an instructional video below:

So there's my story of being cognitive of anger.  Do you have one? Is there some person in your life, maybe a stranger or close acquaintance that has stirred up a tornado of emotion in you? Next time this happens, explore a yogic approach.  I personally chose to do a hatha practice first because I felt that it calmed me down, but whatever you choose...either meditation first or hatha...try to be strong and practice compassion and sympathy.   Also, try to remember this is a practice.  If it doesn't resonate at first, try again until it starts to kick in. I bet it will.

Well I guess that's all I have for today's post. Comments are always welcomed, so please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section. Hope the day finds you well. Until next time my little yogis and yoginis =0).
Peace. Namaste.
Roxy