Whisper #23The Language You Keep Obeying

It’s been three weeks since I unrolled my mat.

That is the longest I have stayed away from movement in months.

Life moved.
A small neck injury joined the conversation.

One of those annoying ones where checking your right side means turning your whole body like badly assembled machinery.

This morning I knew I needed to practice.

The body knew too.
The mind had other ideas.

Not dramatic ones.
Very reasonable ones.

Later the noise went louder:

You missed too many days already.
You’ll feel stiff.
Today is not the right day to restart.

The mind is often logical inside its own distortions.

That is why people trust it so easily.

A thought sounds clean,
so we assume it is true.

Meanwhile the body is already saying something else.

I stared at the mat for almost thirty minutes before touching it.

Then I unrolled it and sat back on the sofa like I had completed something important.

Another thirty minutes passed.

The mat was there.
Quiet.

Almost mocking how complicated the mind can make one simple act.

Beautiful too.

(She is a she.)

Then I asked myself something I already knew:

Have you ever regretted practice?

Not the rare injury.
Not the ego doing stupid shit.

Real practice.

The answer was obvious.

So I stepped in.

The first minutes were the noisiest.

Too many missed days.
Too much stiffness.

Hamstrings pulling like they had complaints to file.

The first forward fold said exactly what three weeks away usually say.

And yes,
I bent my knees.

Because pretending flexibility while your body says otherwise is another form of noise.

Then a few breaths later,
something changed.

The noise dropped.

The joints softened.

The body stopped resisting what the mind had been arguing against for an hour.

And somewhere mid-flow,
I caught myself smiling:

Oh.
You do remember.

That is the strange thing.

The body often returns faster than the mind allows.

But most people never stay long enough to see that.

They obey the first thought.

I feel stiff,
so today is not the day.

I feel tired,
so better wait.

I lost rhythm,
so restarting now will feel wrong.

And because the thought sounds logical,
they call it self-awareness.

It isn’t always self-awareness.

Sometimes it is hesitation dressed well.

And repeated long enough,
it starts shaping character.

You postpone one practice.

Then another conversation.
Another decision.
Another beginning.

Not because life stopped you.

Because the mind spoke first,
and you never checked if it was right.

They decide before reality begins.

That is how people slowly build lives around conclusions they never tested.

One thought.
One delay.
One respectable reason after another.

Until avoidance starts sounding wise.

The body usually says it earlier.

Move.
Speak.
Start.
Breathe.

But that language is quieter,
so people miss it.

Or worse,
they hear it
and still obey the louder voice.

Then months pass,
and they call that distance fate.

It isn’t always fate.

Sometimes it is just too many small obediences to thoughts that were never true.

So the next time the mind gives you a clean argument against one honest step,
take the step first.

Then listen again.

With Love & Stillness,
Saf