I commented on this in passing the other day, and now I’ve been thinking a lot about how much we don’t stretch in everyday life. Once my teacher Margaret said “It’s yoga. Exaggerate!” That’s exactly right. We never do that. I might reach for something on the top shelf, only for a moment, and never thinking about the stretch, only thinking about not dropping that gravy pitcher that I’m inching down.
I do find that when I’m practicing daily, or close to daily, that I do more stretching in life. Today I was at Audio-Reader for two hours, reading live with another person. We alternated reading every 15 minutes. I really wanted to stand up and do, say, Parsvottanasana (intense side stretch), while I wasn’t reading. I didn’t do it because I thought it would be weird for the other guy. Next time I’ll just warn my partner in advance. I do various yoga poses when I’m recording at Audio-Reader alone, just trying not to breathe too hard.
Practice Notes 