To Yoga or Not To Yoga

Every week, I wrestle with the same demons: do I go to yoga class, or do I slink home and watch whatever is on PBS or the Netflix we have lying around the house? (Last week was a relatively stress-free choice because I was in Boston and had the opportunity to take Patricia Walden's class in Cambridge; the week before, only the changing of a light from "Walk" to "Don't Walk" changed my direction and compelled me to go to class).

It's the whole "should" phenomenon: since I feel like I should go to yoga, it somehow becomes an unattractive option. When faced with walking to the studio and going to class, hopping the train to go home to loll on the red chair suddenly seems decadent and exciting. The fact that I would not, in actuality, go home and loll on the red chair, but would instead putter around the house fretting about (but ignoring) the cat box, doing the dishes, picking up and setting down a knitting project, and pretending to read, is of no consequence at all. Going home is the incorrect choice to make...which makes it all the more compelling in my brain somehow.

Maybe the underlying issue here is that I need to (should?) remove the "should" from the equation. I could think instead "it is a privilege to go to yoga" or "it is healthy" or "I always feel great after class"--all of which are true. Thinking of the positive also focuses on the act of going to class rather than the "good/bad" dyad. But it also takes more mental energy, which I seem not to have. But is lack of mental energy an excuse for living a less healthy life? There's no downside to going to class...except moving me out of my comfort zone, which is part of the whole point.

So we'll see. Maybe I'll use the time between now and class to figure out how to get a blog roll to show up in my template...

More soon.