Yoga
My earliest experience with yoga was on a playground. I don’t know what posessed me to say this during recess to a young girl standing next to me by the balance beams, but I said to her: “You should sit like this, it’s helps you think better.” At this point I proceeded to fold myself into half-lotus pose.
I don’t know why I said that, but I did. My parents did not practice, i didn’t watch practitioners on TV, I have no idea where that came from. It’s enough to make one believe in the collective unconscious or reincarnation.
When I was in Sydney I saw practitioners, but I didn’t practice myself: but the idea was planted. I got back into practicing in 2004 in Mountain View and since my move to Austin I’ve been practicing about 3 times a week. It’s been a real help. I have horrible ‘hacker’s crouch’ issues, yoga helps strengthen that. As an asthmatic / allergy sufferer I’ve always benefitted from breathing exercises, and yoga helps with that. I also read the Mahabarata and the Baghavad Gita whilst in college, and there’s a certain harmony between the Vedic / Yogic world view and my own perceptions and philosophy.
Furthermore, it’s the hardest you’ll ever work to do what seems like nothing.
I find it a good balance and the practice itself has a pure beauty to it, an excellence, an arete.
