IKEA Teaches Yoga

Walking through IKEA, I was amazed that I was seeing my yoga practice everywhere.  I couldn't believe it.  Sweden's own form of mega store giving you everything from furniture to plants and of course, if you are so tempted, Swedish meatballs.  So how can I say that this megaplex of a store, that most people I know dread going to and will only go to on a weekday when the likelihood of mass amounts of rampaging families and out of control children are at a minimum, was teaching me yoga?

Simplistic in design.  Clean lines.  Options galore.  But above all, function is the highest importance.   We have the choice to make something so characteristic of IKEA to instead be characteristic of our own design.  Picking and choosing what best suits us but given an outline of the many possibilities out there.  Like my yoga practice, each time that I step there, I see something new, I experience something I hadn't before.  I am given a choice.  And like my practice, if I choose to add on to much, to get overzealous, I lose my way.  My potential is cluttered.  Sticking to the less is more concept generally works.  If you look at the displays of room models, you begin to notice that they have just the right amount of details and thought given to it.  No more, no less. 

Once you have made your decision of what path to go on, you are directed to start at the beginning again.  You must pick up your furniture from the bins and take it home to assemble yourself.  Like a yoga practice, we don't get the easy out.  We can't skip steps and expect to get the same results.  We must practice patience, attention, focus, and determination.  We are given all the tools needed but not necessarily with hands held.  The last time I had to put together furniture, I found myself frustrated and amused at the same time.  Instructions are all given in pictures with no wording.  I was forced to open my mind to imagination and perceive the images as reality.  Of course if your attention drifts from the moment, you end of hammering in many tiny nails into a particle board backing backwards, in which you will never be able to take off and fix.  Lesson learned again.  Yoga is everywhere and in the most unlikely of places.