On Hitting that Good Lizard

There are plenty of ups and downs of getting older.

Up: Autonomy! Making money (kinda? Sometimes? I guess if you’re lucky?)! Eat ice cream whenever you want!

Down: Tired all the time! Busy all the time (and not with fun stuff)! Ice cream now gives you a tummy ache! Body hurts ALL THE TIME!

But, it doesn’t have to be like this! Drink some coffee, quit your job, take a lactaid pill and do some yoga!

I used to play a lot of sports and I played them HARD. I was always the guy who came home covered in grass stains and dirt and often times a million cuts, scrapes, and bruises. I would throw my body all around like I was some kind of dog toy. Why? I don’t know, it was fun! And I thought I would live forever! Well, now I’m thirty and all of that living has started to catch up to me. My back usually hurts. My knees and ankles pop and crack like a bowl of Rice Krispies. My wrists and shoulders are as stiff as the drink you pour yourself before you open Will’s Dumb Brain and see what I’m ranting about this week!

I thought I would feel like this forever, I thought it would only get worse…until I finally took the advice literallyeveryone has been giving me for the last ten years, and I started doing yoga.

And OH, MY GOODNESS, what a difference it has made. I feel light, I feel limber, I feel like I can see the good in the world for just a single moment and hope for a brighter future—oh wait just kidding, I accidentally looked at twitter for two seconds and I’m back to feeling like we’re completely doomed…but I can touch my toes again!

Not only has yoga helped me feel physically better, and occasionally made me feel emotionally better, it helps me be even more insufferable! I now walk around, levitating several inches off the ground, and whenever I hear anyone, anywhere in the world complaining, I fly over to them at supersonic speeds and ask them, in a voice as annoying as Ben Shapiro’s everyday talking voice, “hmmmmm have you tried doing yoga?!” And then I fly off again as there is someone else in the world who needs my condescension!

But, in all seriousness, doing yoga has made a big difference in my life. So much of my stiffness, my back pain, and my inflexibility has dissolved with just 20 minutes a day, a few times per week. So, if you feel pain, if you feel anxiety, if you feel anything at all that isn’t nirvana, try and hit that mountain pose, that lizard pose, that pigeon pose, and both of those warrior poses. Find a routine in a book or on YouTube or in a class. Whatever you do, find something nice that you can do for your body before you plop down behind a screen for the next 8 hours and hunch your shoulders like your life depends on it!

So, do you do yoga? Have you tried it? Will you try it now? What about now? What if I ask again?