From Running to Radiohead

Is it a cliché to write about how awesome Radiohead is? Probably, but I’m going to do it anyway. 

Sometimes I run, well jog, I do it because it’s good for me and because after a run I do a 30 minute yoga practice. “Could you,” you ask, “just do a 30 minute yoga practice without running?” and yes, but there are a few things about after a run make me really love doing yoga. First my body is warm, you might even say hot and I do love to sweat. I even do hot yoga sometimes because I really enjoy creating a deep internal heat and feeling how deeply and differently asanas feel in that state. Also if I don’t push myself too hard but also not be to gentle my mind is in a very pliable state after I run. I don’t want to sit down a do a crossword puzzle but the rhythm of running can get me to a place where I can really concentrate. So I do a very slow yoga practice, getting into only a handful of postures and staying there for around 30 slow and controlled breathes. Running increases and expands respiration so it’s nice to harness that breath into a concentrated effort. Also the heat in my muscles allows me to really “get into” the asanas. 

“Wait, I thought she was going to talk about Radiohead?” I am, and I will, I’m just creating a little scene for you.

Also after a run, at least when Wisconsin isn’t covered in snow I always do post run yoga outside. I love yoga outside, listening to nature, enjoying the occasional cloud burst and even basking in the sun and keeping a little of that heat with me. So yesterday after my run, I plopped down on the deck out back with my dog and started my slow, breath centered practice. Pigeon on each side with a little sun salute between the sides, pyramid for the back of the legs and a few variations of wide legged forward folds. Pretty standard but usually I do a few more to round it off but to I got distracted, by Radiohead.

I normally don’t run with music (mostly because my ears are tiny and reject all forms of ear buds) but yesterday I ran with a playlist made by a good friend who has a much broader (better) taste in music than me. Happily there are quite a few Radiohead songs on there and though it was on shuffle I got 2 in a row! Through the ear buds the music penetrated my concentration or rather took it to a different place. I didn’t want to be doing asana anymore, I wanted to be sitting in the sun and, well, that’s it, just sitting in the sun, while the music pushed all other thoughts away and I could fall into its rhythm. Some may not call that a “proper” meditation but it sure felt like it to me, the music sounded different in my head because it sounded like it was in my head, not being piped in over background noise. 

As the second song ended I had a moment of panic that whatever song played next would pull me from this beautiful contentment I was swimming in but it didn’t. It was another Radiohead song, you know the one, we all love it, let’s say it together now, “Fake Plastic Trees” I know total cliché. But the thing is it wasn’t. Normally I hear this song and want to weep, I identify with the weary vocals and sullen melody but today I heard it differently, when the famous line “it wears her out…” came through I didn’t feel worn out, I didn’t feel drug through the mire, I felt at peace, I felt like, in a way, I had worn my ego out and it surrendered its grip on all that fake plastic stuff it clings to, the stuff that keeps me from being who I want to be, all the time, all the time… (you know the song, right, I don’t have to make that reference, right). 

So Radiohead, pretty amazing band and pretty amazing meditation technique too, who would have thought.