Poop and Samskara

I had a little more than an hour to kill before I was teaching my next class, so I figured I would make the best use of my time and get some work done. I sat down on a bench outside and started jamming out my daily to-do list. About 10 minutes in, I realized that I needed to go to the bathroom, but was already far enough into what I was doing that I didn’t want to take the time to break the momentum and honor my body’s needs. This went on for about an hour before I finally had to stop to teach my class. I gathered my things and started heading for the bathroom. By this time, things had gone into the critical zone, I found myself sprinting to the men’s room before things got ugly. It felt like I barely got into the bathroom and disrobed (the appropriate amount) to take care of business. Without going into the details, (you’re welcome) what could have been a normal natural occurrence of apanasana (downward releasing of energy) almost turned into an epic horror story. Fortunately, all ended well, but the stress involved was a bit overwhelming and all together unnecessary. What I realized in this moment was my samskara; a behavioral pattern that I needed to realign in order to liberate myself from suffering. I’m not just talking about this one, almost tragic, bowel movement. I’m talking about my pattern of waiting until the last possible moment to to complete a task, or in this case, honor my body’s needs. This procrastination or mis-prioritizing can easily be corrected now that I recognize the pattern. As I have often heard and said, how we do one thing is how we do everything. If I can trace it, face it, and erase it, I can alleviate the further need for stress and disease in my life. With the realization of this one pattern, and the correction of it, I set the intention of realigning the rest of my universe to listen to my life’s needs and to get things done way ahead of the rising wave of the critical.