Generous to a Fault

This thing I've been saying lately, and I think it might be entirely true for me: You only have as much as you can give away.

Last night in my yoga class I had a rewarding realization about my practice and my life. Open your heart but watch your back.

My lumbar spine is too flexible, which has caused all sorts of interesting injuries and aches in my hips and knees and back. Because of this, I have to be careful in back- and forward-bending postures to make sure I'm not overarching or extending that part of my spine. I have to conscious think to distribute the flexibility across my whole spine, into my hamstrings and hip flexors and so forth.

I'm going on at length about this to explore the parallel for myself. A primary goal of yoga is to "open your heart", both figuratively and literally. You do this by binding your hands behind your back in forward bend, and humble warrior, separating your interstitial spaces, and lengthening your pecs, biceps, traps, and the deep muscles underneath. Eventually the hope is to give your heart and lungs more room and support from their casing.

I'm rambling on about this just to say: Watch your back. Don't bend over backward trying to give your heart away and destroy your foundation. Stretch only as far as is safe For You. It is a balance. It doesn't mean you can't push yourself some days, to love more people, love greater, and give more than the day before. But those days must be balanced with the days when you are careful with yourself, and practice your life gently.

More often than both of these days, however: before you throw away your foundation trying to Love, make sure you've got the support. Keep breathing into that back body, with just as much awareness there as in all you have to give.