What I learnt of Yoga from my first day climbing

I have never been a good friend of heights. Ok, planes don't count. In a plane everything looks like a Google Maps picture, it almost doesn't feel real. You are comfortably seated, there is a double layer window...

My problem is when the height looks me in the eye,  when I can feel its breath on my face and the floor threatens me from tens of meters below... ok, maybe just few meters... but still...

So as I was arriving to the climbing area and saw my brother in law saying hi from several meters up on the wall I knew a lesson was waiting for me... and not just about climbing.

First thing I noticed, when you have a challenging goal to reach (in that occasion, my scary several meters climb), you better focus on the next step that will get you closer. Otherwise you have big chances to get paralyzed and overwhelmed like thinking in the top of the wall, I mean... the goal. So helmet on, some magnesium to my hands and focus on the first support...

And then the second one. Good, one more... Yoga speaks about abhyasa (constant effort) and vairagya (dettachment) to achieve the goal. As I was climbing, the only way to go higher was patient and costant effort. Effort to find the next place to hang my hand or place my foot, to push and pull my body upwards. Any distraction from my task and I would be falling down. A beautiful parallelism, right? Nothing better to soak the concepts in than a good sweat... And better not to look down, just enough to find the next support to push you higher.

Higher... Yoga teaches you to be in the present,  the harmony between body and mind. There was I, just me, my body (ok, my tense body, please focus, breath control... breath control to control the mind... relax... focus... ) and the wall. Nothing else mattered in that moment, or I was down. Mindfulness lesson in progress...

Well, there was something more than my body, the wall and the brave version of me. There was the red rope. If everything else would fail there would be still the red safety rope. Without faith in the red rope and my brother in law giving me helpful directions from down there I would have certainly failed.

Maybe sometimes I wasn't listening to him or I wasn't aware the rope was there. But when the things got really challenging for me, if I listened... "You have a hold near your right foot", or I felt the red rope holding me tighter. So climbing I got other beautiful parallelism to learn. I can imagine now the role of Ishvara (God) in Yoga as the climbing red rope. 

Finally I reached the top,  looked down (Uuuuuuffff, better not... look to the horizon, look to the horizon) and got that wonderful feeling of achievement and overcoming fears.

In my next asanas practice I will remember to improve this feeling of being totally in the present, this harmony between body and mind... after all... that's what we do asanas for, right?

For life off the mat, a mental reminder: Focus, on the next step towards the objectives. Don't get distracted by fear or other unimportant stuff. Have faith. Relax and have a clear mind before the next decision or I will fall. And if I fall, hold to the red rope, pause and start climbing again.