Blow it Off

There’s a Seinfeld episode where Jerry runs into an old college buddy and asks him out to lunch. His friend turns him down, saying he has an important meeting, but Jerry convinces him to join him, saying “Come on, blow it off. Remember poli sci? How many of those did we go to?” His buddy decides to blow off the meeting (his investment firm’s first meeting with a huge new client), gets fired and winds up becoming the assistant manager at Kenny Rogers Roasters.

I’ve used the phrase, “remember poli sci?” ever since I saw that episode, sometimes to convince a friend to blow off a project and hang out with me instead, other times as an internal nudge to help me find balance between productivity and pleasure, rigidity and spontaneity.

I seek the same balance on the mat: sometimes I do more rigid practices that emphasize precise alignment and ways to improve my teaching; other times I do feel-good practices that get myself out of my head and into my yoga zone. I confess I tend to lean toward the former.

Where do you tend to lean on the rigidity:spontaneity / productivity:pleasure scale? How might your yoga practice inform your efforts to find more balance? Anything you might consider blowing off this month?