#44: Just Show Up

That's the hardest part.

Just Show Up

Just show up. That’s the hardest part. You get big kudos just for showing up, says she…

She being the leader of an online yoga class I take. I say to myself…

Just roll out the mat and do it.

Why is something that is so good for me, and after which I feel so good, so hard to do?

After four plus decades of yoga, you’d think that I would be a handstand master, but my yoga practice is not Hot, Hatha, or Vinyasa. It is of the On-Again-Off-Again School of Yoga. Some years I practice three to five times a week; other years it can be weeks or months between sessions.

A master of yoga I am not. A master of procrastination…I am.

A brilliant, professional, and highly productive friend becomes a first time mother…of twins. Always one to complete ambitious goals, her days are now filled with client phone calls and emails to return, yet to be written thank-you notes, and never ending piles of unfolded laundry.

She makes a ten-day commitment to complete just one thing each day—no matter how small. Her day one goal is to fold not all the laundry, but one item from the pile. This is a doable goal and when she goes on to complete an entire pile, she feels like an over-achiever!

Winner! Winner!

Another day, her goal is just to breathe. Yet, when there are so many other things left undone, she says she feels shame because she is only accomplishing one thing. She notices the thought and lets it pass.

Bravo, I say!

I have plenty of my own “one things”—dishes, laundry, sweeping, walking, weeding, writing, sorting through boxes of photos up in the attic.

My broom and dustpan lean next to the refrigerator and sweeping will be my one thing today. As I reach for the broom, I take a breath and begin sweeping crumbs and dust bunnies. Time is measured by the rhythm of each sweep and emptying of the dust pan. I finish the kitchen, and move on to my bedroom, and then the living room. I sweep three rooms clean and feel a sense of great accomplishment as I look around.

I pick up my yoga mat and roll it out on the clean floor. I take my socks off, settle myself in a cross-legged seat, and take a deep cleansing breath. The hardest part is done. I’ve shown up.