Chair Yoga and Tolerance

The Hatfield Senior Center offers Chair Yoga on Tuesday mornings. I've been going for a couple of years now. I'd prefer to practice "full-blown" mat Yoga, but this is free and convenient. It's also more of a workout than one might think.

Whether on a mat or chair, a Yoga practitioner is to remain focused on his/her own body and not watch what others are doing (or not doing). That's part of the discipline.

There is a woman named D. who often attends the class. She usually arrives a few minutes after we've begun, and I find it a little distracting. If there is not an empty chair, the instructor has to fetch two more. (We use two chairs for several of the postures.) D. has many physical limitations and cannot lift even a light chair.

D. also chooses to do a couple of the postures standing. She uses a neoprene knee support for some, but not all, of them. The knee support attaches with velcro which makes a distinctive sound as she puts it on and takes it off.

I have to admit to getting annoyed. Is D. oblivious to the multiple distractions she creates for the others in the group? Or am I the only person who feels this way?

I try to remember that D. is often in pain, that she comes to Chair Yoga to help mitigate that pain and to try to keep her body functioning as well as it can. I try to treat the distractions she causes as a challenge and keep focused on my own postures. After all, that's part of the discipline.

I do, however, wish she would arrive on time.

Resistance

I don't know why I have so much trouble posting to this blog on a regular basis. It's not as if I don't think about it. It's not as if I don't have (in my opinion) interesting posts to make.

During the day, I'll see or hear something that provokes a thought that might be interesting to develop on this blog. After all, that's why I started it - as well as chronicling my journey through a possible career change. The career change, though, is slowly but surely morphing into retirement.

Perhaps impending retirement is a good post for today.

Over the last few months, I feel as if my interest in being a librarian is seeping away. Once upon a time it was all I wanted to do. I have opportunities to work, but I am totally uninterested. I could give more continuing education programs, but just don't want to put the effort into marketing.

At the moment, I am perfectly content working 18 hours/week at MassCat where I correct typos (see the Portuguese Picket Dictionary), upgrade incomplete records, merge duplicate records, find records when member libraries cannot, or create records if they do not exist. The work is very detailed and requires lots of concentration. Many would find it boring. I get into the Zen of it.

I still enjoy leading the senior exercise class twice each week (and attending a third time). I sometimes think that some area of exercise or health would be a good career for me. Recently, I saw an article in the local newspaper (I still read a newspaper every day) about wellness coaches and I had a burst of enthusiasm for becoming one. However, after reading information about the training and requirements, I began to realize it would be a major commitment. And I'm not very good at bossing people around; at insisting someone do something he/she doesn't want to do. I don't think I could be firm enough to be effective.

So, for the moment, I'll continue my current schedule, enjoy reading lots of books, and make resolutions (which I sometimes keep) to clean the house more often.