I have a three-year-old son, and this is not a
myth: the Terrible Twos and the Absolutely Hor-
rible Threes are phases that really do exist. And I
think everything I have been doing in my life up
until this point has been to provide me the tools
for dealing with a toddler. The last thirty years
was the practice of yoga; the last three years has
been the application of yoga.
For most of my life, I was self-absorbed and
self-centered, traveling that road of finding out
who I was. But my greatest battles and challenges
from the past pale in comparison to the challenge
of getting my son dressed and out the door in the
morning. It is a daily test of patience and compas-
sion and trying to not react in a knee-jerk way. I
invite any Buddhist monk who’s been studying in a
monastery for however many years to take care of
a three-year-old for few days.
My son just doesn’t want to do what Daddy
wants him to do: “No, you cannot wear just your
underwear to school today. You really can’t. And
Daddy has to teach a yoga class in forty-five
minutes, and we really need to get this show on
the road.” My son knows all of this and doesn’t
care. Sometimes I lose my patience and get frus-
trated. I have to step back, breathe, try not to
react, and calmly try to put this kid’s socks on.
Change—to me this is what yoga is all about
anyway. Yoga is not living in some idealized state.
It’s about rolling with the punches and hopefully
applying whatever techniques we’ve picked up
along the way. Let’s be very clear that what you
do on the mat for ninety minutes is just one very
small part of it. If you walk around the rest of the
day disregarding others, you’re not doing yoga.
You’re just doing gymnastics.Chad
HALF LORD OF THE FISHES POSE VARIATION