Whoops! I Did It Again: Yoga and the Art of Computer Crashing

There are a few phrases you never want to hear from a computer tech guy:

• "This one has me thinking."
• "I've seen this before. Once."
• "If your hard drive has failed, this computer is probably worth saving."

That was last Friday for me, when I somehow managed to change everything on my laptop into a link. (Yes, yes, I did-Kevin, the computer guy, said so.)  I did this just as I was preparing for my Yoga and Meditation for Fibre Artists workshop on Saturday.  Nothing I tried helped and, after a failed system restore attempt, Kevin was handed a sorry hunk of metal and a puzzle to ponder for a few days.  He called me today to say everything was fine and, indeed, it seems to be, all programmes restored and running, although I wasn't thrilled to hear Kevin tell me that he's still not sure what spectacular thing I did to put my baby in intensive care.  Go big or go home, is the saying.  I prefer not to apply it to computers.

What does this have to do with yoga and meditation?  Well, apart from appreciating the timing of the crash, there was something else I noticed.  There was a time when a problem like this would have sent me straight up to the ceiling and back again, then running about the house shrieking madly in anger and frustration.  I can't say I was pleased that I couldn't access the material I needed for the workshop, nor was I happy about the hefty repair bill; however, instead of losing my shit over something beyond my control, I managed to see the humour in the problem and to put things into perspective.  I've experienced far worse events. My life wasn't in that laptop, although it felt that way for a while.  Everything was backed up, on paper, on flash drive, on disc. (Good girl, Ms. DD!) Kevin fixed things up nicely and if it cost me a tidy sum to have him do that, well, it couldn't be helped.  

The experience gave me the lead for my workshop-7 fibre devotees and 1 brave, good sport husband (Yeah, Jeremy!)-heard about my computer crash and how we can apply yoga and meditation to our lives. (Everything went well during the workshop; people seemed to be pleased with what they discovered.) You see, it's not that yoga and meditation change your life in huge increments, or even in any noticeable way at all. What can happen though, is that attention to your practice can promote teeny, tiny changes, in your posture, your moods, your ability to manage daily events.  When you do experience negative thoughts and emotions over unpleasant occurrences, you may find that those thoughts and feelings dissipate more quickly than they would before you began a yoga practice.  It's likely that others will notice changes in you before you do; however, you may discover one day that yoga smooths out the rough edges, levelling out the highs and lows that cause suffering over even the most trivial matters.

Yoga and meditation can keep you calm during a crash.  It can't repair that computer for you.  For that, I thank Kevin, at The Computer Clinic.

 

  Namaste.