The Power of Sweat

Last night there I was – laying in the middle of a hundred degree room – a hot, sweaty, disgusting mess, trying my best to calm my mind and find my inner peace. I had a towel over my eyes, and, after hopping from a crow into a downward dog into a super-triple-quardruple-backflip… I was spent.

It was my first time back at hot yoga for some time, and I was proud of myself for remembering a lot of it. I remembered to keep my body aligned during triangle, and to twist my pinkies inwards and reach for the sky. I even remembered that, for hot yoga class, I didn’t need to wear tennis shoes (because sometimes I do).

While laying in the final resting pose, I closed my eyes and tried my best to just relax and clear my mind, but instead found that my thoughts were wandering every which way…

… I should find a developer guru to write the code for that application I want to invent..
… I really want that Mac lip liner. I should go tomorrow.
… Is it OK to eat when you get home from a yoga class? ‘Cause the instructor mentioned spreading your toes out like cake batter. Damn her.
… Did I really just think about hiring a computer programmer while in a yoga class?!

And then, instead of trying to think ahead, I decided to think back. Back to when I was just married, and when I became interested in photography. It was only four years ago, and really, I didn’t know much about starting a business. I was just a girl who asked a random lady at a wedding what kind of camera she was using. And now, here I am, travelling across the country speaking to other photographers and working with amazing clients.

And then I shut up. And laid there.

I learned last night the power of calming my mind and focusing on the present. The power of forgetting about all of the things on my To-Do list, and instead thinking about how effort, motivation, and determination can open doors, even if I never really know what those doors are. To think about what others may become, and how I can help them too. The power is not in the future – the power is in the now, even if that now includes sweating with 15 other women in a room with wood-laid floors and heat lamps (that sounds gross.)

It was.