The Yoga of Having a Cold

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." --Theodore Roosevelt

You wake up, a headache already settling in behind the forehead. Congestion makes it impossibly to breathe through the nose. You get out of bed, determined to practice, clear your nose and settle into your meditation seat, only to have the nose start running again. You wipe. You take a few breaths, and maybe start feeling a little frustrated that you can’t breathe through the nose as you normally can. You become aware of a scratchiness in the back of the throat. You get up and get a drink of water. Begin again. Repeat. Blow nose, sit, drink water, sit, begin again, repeat.

Sometimes when we are sick, it might be best to stay in bed and save our practice for a time when we can sit with more energy and patience for ourselves. But whether we’re on the mat, the cushion or in bed, we can still apply our yoga practice to being sick.

First, there is self-compassion. Ask youself: do I need to be sitting up right now? Does my body want to be doing postures or meditation? Or does my body need rest right now? Being sick is a prime time to tune into self-awareness and truly give the body what it needs, whether that is more time in bed, a cup of hot tea, some vitamin C-filled juice, or other things. If you feel frustration at not being able to practice as you normally would, notice that, and then try to practice compassion.

If you feel you have the energy to practice asanas (postures), try to really tune into what the body needs in that moment. Maybe your usual practice is filled with vigorous sun salutions and arm balances. On a sick day, you might need to try more of a yin practice, taking it easy and slowing down. You might need to skip the alternate nostril breathing if your nostrils aren’t cooperating. Practice self-acceptance and contentment with the present moment and to quote Theodore Roosevelt, do what you can with what you have, where you are.

Being sick also offers us an amazing opportunity to turn towards the pain of our bodies rather than turning away from it. Whether we are confronted with a cold, a sore throat, or pain in our body, our initial reaction is usually to turn away from the pain and to find ways to make the pain stop, such as through cold medicines or pain medication. Instead, shine the light of your awareness on the pain or discomfort. Explore the sensations of a scratchy throat. What does being sick really feel like? When we turn towards the pain and explore it in a nonjudgmental way, we find that the pain or discomfort isn’t one fixed thing, but rather it ebbs and flows and changes in the moment. A sore throat has different layers of feeling, maybe dryness, a sandpaper quality...explore what it really feels like. Our resistance to it only compounds the pain and discomfort.

Then there is gratitude. This is often easiest to practice one we are healthy again, but there’s no need to wait for that. You can practice gratitude right away! Be thankful for all the days that you haven’t been sick and maybe didn’t even realize it. Be thankful for the health that you do have. Thich Nhat Hanh has a practice of scanning body parts and thanking those body parts for working properly. For example, maybe we have good eyesight - but how often do we feel thankful for this eyesight? Usually not until it is taken away. Even when you are sick, you can appreciate the parts that are working well - perhaps your legs that allow you to walk, your eyes. When we start to appreciate the body parts that are working, we can have a greater appreciation for life in general.


Finally, there's the practice of beginning again. As with the introduction scenario of "blow nose, sit, drink water, sit, begin again, repeat," we can simply begin again. So what if we had to stop our practice to blow our nose or get up to get a drink? It doesn't mean that everything is ruined. We can begin again, from where we are right now. 

We may wake up feeling bad, but sometimes if we can manage to get ourselves onto the yoga mat or meditation cushion and sit with our discomfort for a while, eventually we can move beyond it. It’s not so terrible after all. It’s not maybe our ideal situation, but it is our present moment, and through our yoga practice we can accept the present moment as it is, work with it as it is, with coughs and pains and all.

Meditation teacher Phil Jones, who offers free guided Insight Meditations through the Winter Feast for the Soul, says that when we dedicate ourselves to daily practice, we are dedicating ourselves to practice even on the days when it’s not so easy. We all have days that we just don’t want to practice, and we have days where it’s much harder to show up to our practice. Some days we don’t want to practice - and those are the days when our practice can maybe teach us the most. We can practice tapas, discipline, and we can practice aparigraha - letting go of our expectations of how we should feel and how the present moment should be. On sick days, our practice may need to take different shapes and forms - maybe the shape of picking up a yogic text instead of the shape of a downward dog - but there is always a way to practice.

The Yoga of Jury Duty

This week I was called for jury duty. Jury duty provides yet another opportunity to practice yoga off the mat!

First there is the arriving to jury duty, waiting in the long line at security to enter the courthouse, waiting with hundreds of other prospective jurors in the jury lounge waiting to be called. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Waiting provides a great opportunity to connect with the breath, connect with the present moment, and to enjoy the journey. Nowhere to go (literally trapped in the jury lounge), nothing to do (but read the book about Yamas and Niyamas that I brought with me). Waiting at jury duty provide endless opportunities for simply connecting with the present moment.

Once I was put on a panel, the next stage was the process of jury selection, which was very interesting. I was placed on a panel with about 50 other prospective jurors, and we were asked numerous questions – some very personal – that lead to the elimination of some jurors. Questions such as:

“Have you or anyone you know ever been convicted of a crime?”

“Have you or anyone you know ever been a victim of a crime?”

“Have you or anyone you know ever been involved in a domestic violence situation?”

Again, patience was key, as asking 50 individuals many questions involved a lot of time and patience. At one point, they actually went around asking all 50 people a series of questions about occupation, family occupations, if you know any lawyers or police officers. Again, jury selection involved lots of opportunities to be with the breath.

It also provided opportunity to share lovingkindness. Some of the panelists had to share very personal stories about being victims of violent crimes, abuse, even rape. I tried to practice active listening, giving my full attention to them, and also sent them lovingkindness, or metta, as they told these stories of pain and suffering in front of total strangers.

After all the questions were asked, the attorneys had the opportunity to dismiss a certain number of jurors (I think it was 10). Here, we were asked not to take dismissal personally. Not taking things personally is definitely an important aspect of yoga practice! However, I was not dismissed, and thus made my way onto the final jury of 12 jurors and 2 alternates.

Then the actual trial began. The trial was an amazing place to practice yoga off the mat, specifically nonjudgmental awareness and active listening.

First, you hear the charges against the defendant. In this case, they were grizzly – nine counts of domestic violence, including from physical violence resulting in injury, false imprisonment, rape, and threats of murder. You have to remain open and unattached to any verdict. You have to assume that the defendant is innocent, and not pass any judgment on him before hearing all the evidence.

Then during testimony, you have to listen with nonjudgmental awareness. For me, I found myself sometimes responding in my mind before the witness would – especially when it was a question that had been asked multiple times, as seems to be the case with trials (not quite as exciting dialogue as in Law and Order and other such courtroom drama shows. They don’t show the repetition and tedium!). It was an interesting exercise to hear my own responses, and to separate these from what was actually happening and what the witnesses would say. Mindfulness in action – being aware of one’s own thoughts and the way our thoughts color our experience and reality. In the case of justice, there is no room for such coloring. And this is why there is so much time spent weeding the jurors out, asking questions about how people feel about police officers, if anyone had experienced domestic violence – so as to limit the potential automatic reactions that could cloud one’s judgment and perception of testimony and evidence. This was a great opportunity to watch the habits of my mind unfold and separate them from the true present moment – what was actually happening and what was being said.

Then there is the active listening. As a juror, this is really your number one task. We have to sit, hour upon hour, listening to testimony, much of which is repetitive, much of which is filled with violence and suffering, with open ears and without clouding the testimony with our own thoughts, opinions, and experience. It is an excellent exercise in active listening – another application of our nonjudgmental awareness. And it is tiring!

When there were pauses, down time, shuffling of papers, I try to send loving kindness to everyone in the room. May the defendant be happy, may the witness be happy, may the lawyers be happy, may the judge be happy, may my fellow jurors be happy…In a case like this, there is a lot of human misery. Regardless of whether the charges against the defendant are true, it is clear that they had a very dysfunctional, at best, relationship and both of them suffer very much. Just listening to the details of their relationship was heavy, let alone actually being a party in that relationship. And the lawyers have to deal with details like this every day, as do the judge and court staff. They must see a lot of human misery in their positions, a lot of pain and suffering. It must weigh on them. I send them wishes to try to help their spirits be a little lighter.

After 5 days of testimony, we entered deliberations. Here, you are looking for truth – satya, in Sanskrit, which is one of the fundamental ethical principles of yoga practice. We had to decide whether the victim’s testimony was believable, was she telling the truth? How about the other witnesses, who didn’t directly observe the crimes committed? What about the experts – did what they say have a bearing on the case? We were presented with a limited account of what happened, and some questions still remained, but we did our best to find truth among these details.

In this case, it was surprisingly fast. We all were in agreement that the victim’s testimony was believable, that she was telling the truth, and that the defendant was guilty of all charges. After two hours of meticulously going through each charge and being certain that we agreed, we came to guilty verdicts on all charges.

And at this point, I got to lay witness to the feelings that arose around this guilty verdict. On one hand, I felt like justice had been served, that we had found the truth and had come to the right decision. I felt secure in our judgment. On the other hand, as the verdicts were read in the courtroom, a family shattered. Four women, most likely the defendant’s family members, sat and sobbed as the verdict was read, asking “How could they do that?!” They, meaning us, the jury. The youngest, who appeared to be a teenager, possibly the defendant’s daughter, proclaimed, “It’s not fair!” And it’s not fair, to be her, to have a father who is most likely going to prison for a long time, to have someone you love taken away from you. I felt terrible – I know that we didn’t cause that sadness directly, but I felt unnerved and shaky in the presence of it. I left the courtroom with a heavy heart.

And even if you know someone is guilty, it is hard to feel good about sending anyone to prison, knowing that the conditions in prison are unlikely to lead to rehabilitation and quite possibly could result in the person being more violent than when they entered.

After this experience, I returned home, feeling shell-shocked and a bit heavy. Yoga – posture, relaxation, meditation – helped me to reground, rest, and recover after a tiring week.

And that’s how I brought my yoga practice to jury duty!