Do not go gentle into that good night

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night. – Dylan Thomas 

I am starting to wonder what I will do for the next 6 weeks to fill up my evenings now that my purple yoga mat is rolled up and snugly sitting in its zippered bag, forlornly looking at me from the corner of my room might I add. Coincidentally, I came across this brilliant article on yogajournal entitled Burn Out, Don’t Fade Away which talks about common setbacks in the course of one’s journey with yoga.

And it made me feel that much better knowing that these setbacks are necessary and part of the journey.

Setbacks are necessary.

If only my head can accept that as easy as the mouth that utters it. But yet such a concept is no stranger to poets, philosophers, psychologists and spiritualists alike.

M.Scott Peck made a living off this belief that “life is difficult” in his international bestseller “The Road Less Travelled”. In the same book, he also mentioned that marriage is God’s trick to get two people to commit to each other for the rest of their lives – but then again.. that would be a topic which calls for an entirely separate entry altogether.

Viktor E. Frankl recounts his heartbreaking experience being in various concentration camps during the Holocaust but emerged from this a wise man who offered the world a valuable perspective of finding meaning through suffering. And it may not be always need to be a painful, life/death type of suffering, heck, it can even be the type of suffering you experience just trying to get by on a working day, but the fact of the matter is that as long as you attach a meaning to any of your life’s circumstances, you are on your way to a better life.

Late last year while catching up with one of my mentors, I remembered being deeply frustrated for not receiving the acknowledgement at work which I had been counting on for about a year before that. I did what I thought was required of me. I put in the hours and more, and got myself busy in extra social activities that most corporations pride themselves for as being part of its “Better Workplace” concept these days. But when silence followed the usual period where you would expect to be notified, I knew that I wasn’t going to be getting any salary revision anytime soon. My mentor, who has over 15 years of work experience under her belt proceeds to whip out her Blackberry and showed me this:

I think what she was trying to tell me that day was not to dwell too much on the “have-not’s”, but to look forward into the future and keep doing what I know is right for me. I love how Dylan Thomas describes that one should never go gently into the night, to never give up, and to rage, rage against the dying light.

As for me and my yoga practice, I think I will consider light stretching while watching TV as my next best plan for the coming weeks. At least that way I know all that flexibility I’ve achieved in my hamstrings will not go to waste. Plus, you’d be surprised of the many healthy things you could do while simultaneously trying not to snort at those guys in The Bachelorette.