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Stretching my comfort zone with gentleness

Maria Górska-Piszek

Against a stunning backdrop of thousands of galaxies, this odd-looking galaxy with the long streamer of stars appears to be racing through space, like a runaway pinwheel firework. This picture of the galaxy UGC 10214 was taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which was installed aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in March during Servicing Mission 3B. Dubbed the 'Tadpole', this spiral galaxy is unlike the textbook images of stately galaxies. Its distorted shape was caused by a small interloper, a very blue, compact, galaxy visible in the upper left corner of the more massive Tadpole. The Tadpole resides about 420 million light-years away in the constellation Draco. Seen shining through the Tadpole's disc, the tiny intruder is likely a hit and run galaxy that is now leaving the scene of the accident. Strong gravitational forces from the interaction created the long tail of stars and gas stretching out more than 280 000 light-years. Numerous young blue stars and star clusters, spawned by the galaxy collision, are seen in the spiral arms, as well as in the long 'tidal' tail of stars. Each of these clusters represents the formation of up to about a million stars. Their colour is blue because they contain very massive stars, which are 10 times hotter and 1 million times brighter than our Sun. Once formed, the star clusters become redder with age as the most massive and bluest stars exhaust their fuel and burn out. These clusters will eventually become old globular clusters similar to those found in essentially all halos of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. Two prominent clumps of young bright blue stars are visible in the tidal tale and separated by a gap. These clumps of stars will likely become dwarf galaxies that orbit in the Tadpole's halo. Behind the galactic carnage and torrent of star birth is another compelling picture: a 'wallpaper pattern' of about 3000 faint galaxies. These galaxies represent twice the number of those found in the legendar

Since I started moving my body regularly a few years ago, it was always with some goal in mind. I lifted weights first to lose weight, then to keep the weight off and eat whatever I wanted, then to beat the previous record for deadlift or squat. I started running to lose weight again, then to improve my lung capacity, then to see if I can beat my best previous time. Out of all forms of sport, rock climbing was the one thing I did mostly for its own sake, but I sucked at it, and gave up too soon.

Now for the past few months I’ve been doing aerial yoga, and compared with running and lifting it strikes me with its purposelessness. Some people do advertise yoga as a great way to lose weight, stretch your muscles, or destress, but this totally misses the point. Yes, all these three things can happen as a side effect of practice, but if this is what you seek, there are much more efficient methods to get there.

No, what’s best about yoga is that you finally get to experience how it’s like to be in a body–or actually, to be a body–and to explore what this body wants and needs. When I practiced weightlifting, I felt like I must push against my body so that it can achieve great things. When there was pain, I explained it away as a part of the process. At some point muscles in my feet started contracting painfully even outside the gym. I thought this is the price I get to pay for lifting more than my bodyweight.

Even when I stopped lifting weights, my feet wouldn’t get back to normal for more than a year. This problem is almost entirely gone since I’m doing yoga. By getting my feet stretched and twisted with attention and gentleness, I can tell for the first time the happy medium between pushing a little bit to far and staying in my comfort zone. And by applying just the right amount of pressure, I can stretch my comfort zone inch by inch, until things that seemed impossible just a few weeks ago are now part of my regular routine.

You may say that finding the right balance between too much and too little challenge is still a goal of its own. But it’s a very different kind of a goal than looking good in bikini. When I felt tired while running I often thought to myself that this soon will be over, and my new bikini body will be totally worth it. When I feel discomfort in a yoga pose… I still catch myself sometimes wishing it was soon over, but then realize it’s completely absurd.

There is no bikini body to look forward to. This weird suspension between comfort and pain is precisely what I came for, and precisely what I need.

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