Prevention

If you’ve been following my mom’s blog, you probably know that she has a new mantra. My mom LOVES a mantra.

If you’ve got time enough to fight, you’ve got time enough to clean.

Compartmentalize.

Boredom comes from a boring mind.

Two things can be true!

You can’t take money with you when you die.

Don’t cry for things that can’t cry for you.

Those are just a few. Her latest is: “If you can predict it, you can prevent it.”

I called her after my yoga class and let her know that I’d thought about it before class began. I’ve been feeling really body-tired this week. Depleted. Drained. Stiff. Yoga, as you might imagine, is hard when you are feeling depleted, drained, and stiff. Borderline impossible, in fact. So before class today, I gave myself a little pep-talk.

I know you are going to feel depleted, drained and stiff, I said to my body. That is my prediction. But I do think that you can feel strong.

I went through the class giving some extra time to my push ups and deep lunges and chair poses. I came out of class feeling a little less drained, a little less depleted, a little less stiff, and definitely strong. My predictions helped prevent.

She was, of course, very tickled with this anecdote.

“However,” I say, “I think that a lot of us predicted that this president would lead us to war.”

Silence from my phone.

“Did you-”

“Yes.” she says. “We might need to workshop that one. What you can predict that is somewhat within your control you can prevent?”

The workshop is, clearly, ongoing…