Yoga, Knitting and Meditation

In my yoga class this morning, when the teacher says "Clear your mind of any thoughts and just focus on your breath." this is next to impossible for me to do. I cannot stop thoughts from coming into my head. I can do this for maybe 10 seconds, but then another neuron fires and my ENFP mind follows that thought. I try, really I try. The same thing happens to me when I meditate. CLEAR YOUR MIND OF ALL THOUGHTS. How do you do that? So this is a continuum right, from a gazillion thoughts in your head to a few. I cannot have NO thoughts going through my head.

In fact as I sat there in yoga, or lied or stood there in yoga, I compiled the to-do list of what was concerning me for the retreat that I am about to leave for. I problem solved a couple of things I was worried about and came up with some pretty good ideas if I do say so myself.

During a check-in with one of my groups, I described knitting as my meditation. It is what calms me, gets me to focus and removes those distracting thoughts from my head. It calms my Adult ADD if that is what I have. It lets me really listen to people. In college, my friend Rachel and I knit through all of our Psychology classes. We asked each professor and only one said NO. It was pretty funny to see us focusing on the Professor at the podium and to see many of the rest of the amphitheater, watching us knit.

So when you see someone knitting during a meeting, or in a group, don't assume that they are checked-out. In fact they may be like me and more checked-in than they would be otherwise. So I leave to go be present at my retreat, with my knitting. I once said in this same group to worry about me when I lay down my knitting. That is a clear signal that I am in distress, and enough distress such that I am not able to be calmed by my knitting.