"Are you even breathing?"

This morning I attended a class at hb yoga works with michelle mckay. It was one of those days where I had zero balance, but tons of gusto. Those are days I know my life is not balanced. My energy was off the charts and I pushed and pushed and pushed myself (not the point, at all). Thankfully, michelle reminded us, "it's the journey," probably in response to the loud thud of my foot coming out of an arm balance back into chaturanga. She reminded us to practice ahymsa, or non-violence, to ourselves. I culminated my all-guts, all-fire version of practice with a sketchy, imbalanced handstand in the middle of the room. I was sweating, and trying, and willing myself into being upside when michelle came over and asked me, "Are you even breathing?" I was so caught up in obtaining my outcome, I wasn't even breathing! It occurred to me that with work and stress of daily life, it's easy to do just that.