Easy does it

I nearly didn't make it to yoga on Friday.
The pain was pretty loud and being very unreasonable and had me running very late.
But I decided to practise 'better late than not at all' and I'm so glad I did.
Sometimes it's a word or a phrase or a title or a name that I hear that takes me on a little spontaneous journey of discovery, and it was in Friday morning's yoga class that I nearly didn't get to that the latest learning was sparked.

"Today, easy does it", I heard our divine yoga teacher say during her introduction.
"Easy does it". That's a phrase I haven't heard for years.

Easy does it. I've probably heard it a zillion times in my life, but never really thought about its meaning and relevance. But on Friday it stuck and I've been saying it randomly ever since.

I looked it up of course. Well actually, I looked up the word easy, defined as
'not difficult ; achieved without great effort'.

Yep...that's what I thought easy meant...
without difficulty, without effort.




But following on was a long list of common phrases using the word easy, and there it was, easy does it. Ya gotta love the Oxford!

This is what it said...

To go carefully; to be lenient; to not be harsh... Hmm.
This was great advice.
The message I needed to hear.






You see I have a long history of being quite harsh with myself, especially when in pain.  I would push through, rally, pretend it wasn't happening and do my best to not let it interfere with my plans - and berate myself when it did. Full steam ahead. Carry on as normal. No ease about it. And all that would achieve was more pain. Pain on top of pain.
I know...crazy hey?

This time, I did it different. I did as Sally said. I did easy does it. I cancelled catch-ups and re-prioritised my to-do list - my new number one: get on the couch and stay there as long as possible.

And it's still with me...I've been doing easy does it all weekend - with the housework, meals, scheduling activities but also and more importantly with myself. I am going carefully - treating my emotional and mental state with care - going gently, giving myself the time and space to recover.



But we need not be in physical pain to apply this old adage... It's one to live by.