All or Nothin'

Just like the song in Oklahoma, I am an all or nothin' kinda gal. I'm not proud of it, mind you, but it's always been my way. I'm in love, or I can't even think of having a movie date, I eat the richest of all carrot cakes or I drink a green juice, I do intense intense yoga or I can't even get myself to the mat. Well, this is no way to go through life, and even if it were, sometimes life just doesn't work that way.

My challenge for the fall is to really find a little balance, a taste of the middle path. Isn't that the whole point of yoga? Oh, right!

One situation that keeps pointing out my all or nothing mentality is my new teaching schedule. I am now teaching on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at a time that makes it hard to get to my own practice. I mean sure, I could get on the mat at home by myself, but often by the time I'm back to Brooklyn I am too tired. So lately I've been heading off to my current teacher anyway. And though I only have an hour to an hour fifteen, as opposed to my normal 1:45 to two hours, I have been getting on the mat and doing a focused, deep practice for the amount of time available to me. I seem to get through only half of third series before he tells me to quit in order to do long finishing postures, and I'm always disappointed in the moment. But the truth is, more is not always better. I seem to leave there feeling pretty great, re-energized, ready to face the day. And my physical practice doesn't seem to be suffering yet, though it's only been a couple of weeks.

The long and short of it is, on my own I have a hard time moderating, but I hope I'm getting better at it, in all aspects of my life. Ok, I mean I still WANT it all, but maybe I can be contented with the middle more of the time.

And on that note, I'm off to have some lovely deep greens for lunch, but there may also be a small indulgence after!

Question of the day: are you the all or nothing type? Is there one area of your life where you wish you'd land more in the middle?