🧘 Where have all the savasanas gone?
Ep 32: The FLRC Challenge gets into gear, the art of conversation, and a renewed search for savasanas in my daily life.
Good luck to everyone running today’s Boston Marathon, including Eliud Kipchoge, who is running this bucket list race on the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. Locally, this past weekend marked the beginning of the 2023 Fingers Lakes Running Club Challenge, or as we affectionately call it, the FLRC Challenge. It’s a great way to jump into the local running community and experience many of our local trails and towns. Plus, there are group runs on the courses all summer long. If you live in or near Ithaca, New York, consider signing up. You can join anytime, and the challenge runs through August 13.
I missed the first group run of the FLRC Challenge for a good reason: it was the day before yesterday’s Syracuse Half Marathon. Leg preservation takes priority! And, I had essentially the same finish time this year that I had in April 2016, though yesterday it was uncharacteristically hot, and in 2016 it was a blizzard. Seriously, check out the video on this page.
A Tip for the Modern Worker
Listen at least as much as you talk. Set a goal to listen to others in a conversation as much as, if not more than, you talk. You can learn so much more, and often arrive at a better conclusion, than if you dominated the conversation. After all, the interaction could have been asynchronous if only one of you is talking. Make sure that everyone has a voice, too. A simple prompt of "What do you think?" can bring a quieter person into center stage and give you more insight.
This tip is one of 365 in my Handbook for the Modern Worker. There’s an art to conversation, both casual and professional, and guess what: it involves a LOT of listening. I like to skew the balance of my conversations more toward whoever I’m with, but it doesn’t always turn out that way. The best way to get someone talking is to simply ask a question. Then, a follow-up question. Let the conversation flow, and resist the urge to make it all about you.
#365DayDraw
I drew this and wrote the accompanying annotation as part of my #365DayDraw project 7 years ago today
He wasn't an armchair commentator until they let him out of the bag
A potato pun, and maybe a few if you’re counting. Y’all can groan now. Maybe we were having some baked potatoes that day? I know we were steeped in ski racing — doing and watching — so maybe the word commentator was rattling around in my brain.
Commentary
In a yoga class last week, Jackie (our instructor) talked about how savasana is becoming shorter and shorter in yoga classes. What is a savasana, you ask? In short, it’s a restorative pose that calls for you to be still and calm, yet aware and awake.
Savasana, or shavasana is the Sanskrit name for an important restorative asana. It is a key component of asana practice in almost every yoga tradition, and is most commonly used at the end of a sequence as a means of relaxation and integration. Some schools also use it to calm the body and mind at the start of a class, and in both Sivananda and Yoga Therapy it is sometimes practiced between postures in order to calm the nervous system. — yogapedia.com
During savasana, Jackie read this poem, and I liked it enough to share it here.
Don’t Do That
by Owen LindleyYou know what breaks me?
When someone is visibly excited
about a feeling or an idea or a hope
or a risk taken, and they tell you about it
but preface it with: “Sorry, this is dumb but—“.
Don’t do that.I don’t know who came here before me,
Who conditioned you to think
you had to apologize or feel obtuse.
But not here. Dream so big it’s silly.
Laugh so hard it’s obnoxious.
Love so much it’s impossible.
And don’t you ever feel
unintelligent. And don’t you ever
apologize. And don’t you ever
shrink so you can squeeze yourself
into small places and small minds.Grow. It’s a big world. There’s room.
You fit. I promise.
It was a lovely sentiment to ponder while relaxing in the pose. I immediately wondered: where are the savasanas in my life? You have to be intentional about incorporating them into your yoga practice, and by extension, by incorporating them into your life. When am I still and calm, yet aware and awake? When am I totally relaxed in the moment? I resolve to build more of these moments into my life. Where are the savasanas in your life?
Miscellanea
🤑 I listened to Adam Grant’s interview with Uri Gneezy, a behavioral economist, about how incentives really work. Give it a listen (or a read: transcript) if you’re curious about motivation, and doubly so if you work in education.
🛗 Did you know that elevator door-close buttons don’t do anything? Like some other buttons in our lives, their presence gives us a sense of perceived control, which is a good thing.
🎠All good things must come to an end, and that includes Broadway’s Phantom of the Opera. After 13,981 performances and 35 years, its doors closed with yesterday’s final performance. It also spells the end for Broadway’s largest pit orchestra of 27 full-time musicians, who’ve enjoyed an unbelievably lucky stability that’s a rare find among pit gigs. Here’s some further context and a photo of my last viewing of the show in August 2017.
The Phandom of the Opera — New York Times
Broadway’s Longest-Running Musical Turns Out the Lights — The Daily
The Phantom of the Opera (Original London Cast) — Apple Music