A to Z Blog : A is for Adhomukhashvanasana and doing yoga with a hyperactive two year old

A to Z Blogging Challenge : 1 April, A

I have spent much of the last year practicing yoga along with my two year old, and this has definitely been an interesting experience. I quit going to classes last year and decided to practice at home. The time I chose to do it was early in the morning, when I hoped Migu would be asleep. But just like Murphy’s laws would have predicted, she almost always woke up when she sensed me doing something. Gradually, I got so accustomed to doing yoga with her, that on the rare days when she sleeps when I am doing, I feel something is missing.

 

This has been my most special experience of the last year, so  I am starting off my A to Z blog with the name of a popular asana, which also happens to be the first asana which my daughter did.  I had promised myself when Migu came that no matter how demanding motherhood is, I would not give up yoga. I have pretty much cut down on most other hobbies, but yoga was not something I wanted to give up.

 

Doing yoga with Migu is a challenge for all the reasons why doing anything which you are interested in along with a hyperactive child is a challenge. It exposes multiple flanks of mine for her to attack, and there are times when I seriously fear for my limbs. When I am doing balancing asanas which require concentration, she goes out of her way to disturb my concentration. When I am in inverted poses, I sometimes feel I am going to either injure her or me. Any bending forward asana is a horse asana for her, since she ends up trying to climb and ride on me. Even if I playfully try to throw her off, she enjoys it.

 

I wanted to expose her to yoga at a young age, because I read about a little child sharing that yoga helped her enjoy every other sensation in my life in a more profound way. I know it is common to say yoga is beyond just physical exercise. But I doubt if I have given my child any profound understanding of yoga. Right now, it is a game for her. Maybe that is the most profound understanding of all.

 

A tribute to the spirit of acceptance and inclusion

Inclusion is a hot word for me professionally. If you are  working in the development sector, words like acceptance and inclusion are part of your daily lingo. We talk of being accepting, being non-judgmental, being inclusive. We want to respect people for what they are, irrespective of caste, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. We have read endless accounts of how gender identity develops in a social world. We want to be totally accepting of people, their choices, their representation of themselves to the outer world. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean any of this sarcastically. Most of you out there, who are going to read this, are all part of that group of people who share these beliefs.

But for me the most inclusive action I have ever witnessed is something narrated to me by a person not on this list. This is my mother-in-law, a person who will come across as a simple, conservative, South Indian woman, comfortable in her home and her home-making responsibilities. She was once telling me that she had a hijra friend back in Delhi, who used to come home during important festivals like Dusshera, Varalakshmi pooja etc for manjal kumkumam (a traditional practice of giving turmeric and vermilion to women on important festival days). My mother in law accepted her friend, not as a hijra, but as a woman. She respected the individual’s choice to become and live as a woman, no matter what she was born as.  Not only did she accept it, she honored her as a woman in the way she knew, an honor she extends to any other woman.

This act of acceptance, from a person, who has not schooled in the thoughts of individual rights, freedom and choices, but who spontaneously accepts it as a foregone conclusion, has given me the conviction, that at the bottom of our hearts, all human beings do respect these values.