Superbowl Sunday

Sport is a preserver of health. ~Hippocrates

It's Superbowl Sunday again! Once again, homes will be filled with friends, family and laughter. Our tables will hold pizzas and giant sandwiches. Rational people will paint their faces, and spell words out with their bodies to support their teams. It's a time to take a break from the every day stress of life, and as a nation, sit back and enjoy the game. It's a day to place on hold our worries over the financial crises and fighting a war in two countries. It's a purely American holiday....and for most of us, the outcome of the game is even less important the fun of watching it.

We need more Superbowls in our lives. We need holidays that don't involve getting dressed up or buying presents. We need an excuse to pause and simply laugh, have fun, argue over nothing more important than whether or not a play made a first down. We need to just live in a moment that's bigger than us all, and yet includes our 'participation', even if it's a group of men discussing why the refs make stupid calls.

Every family has its Superbowl traditions. My mother used to always make a meatloaf in the shape of a football, with pimentos for laces. When my husband was growing up, his brother and he would gather all their friends on the high school field for a game of pick up football in the afternoon prior to kickoff. From the time the boys were about 6 years on, they'd play their own game, young and old mixed together, mimicking their favorite players move and attitude.

So, why does the Superbowl capture the imagine of so many people? I believe it's because the game gives up the chance to pick sides, to 'fight the good fight', but ultimately to go home, together, as Americans. Because my husband is an Army Officer, the only game that comes close to this intensity of feeling, and yet, unity, is the Army-Navy football game, held ironically on my birthday every year. In both games, we can cheer, we can shout and we can holler out our prowess over the other team. But, when it's all said and done, we go home as a nation, together and united.

In Yoga, there is no sense of competition. We are all in our own practice, with some being more advanced and others being beginners. There is not the sense of one of us versus another, in a healthy yoga class. Still, a little competition is not an inherently bad thing. Therefore, when practing Yoga, or swimming or skiing...or doing anything in which we can excel, I believe it's important to ourselves to push ourselves to the next level. This doesn't mean each of us must become a Master Yogi, or win an Olympic Gold Medal. It means that we can press on ourselves, without anyone acting as our battlefield opponent, to achieve our very best in whatever we set out to do. We can pursue our own glory, and our sense of empowerment, without having it be at the expense of someone else's 'loss'. In a sense, as we continue to develop our own talents and push ourselves to achieve, those who are close to us will, most likely, share in our successes.

As you watch the game today, enjoy the spectacle, laugh at the commercials and dream about your goals...and ways to make them not only possible, but achievable.

Now...are you ready for some football?