When you’re in Chair Pose with thighs on fire, and you’re making a face that suggests you have a difficult tax question, what do you do? Tough it out? Give up? Or perhaps soften your jaw just a bit? Your legs might keep doing their thing just fine.
That’s the kind of experiment I had in mind last week when I wrote about tuning your effort. Change one thing, feel what happens, and use what you learn to decide what to do next. The trick is remembering to try it while your thighs are still burning.
I like a good memory aid. When I was preparing for my doctoral dissertation exams (in musicology), I built something called a “memory palace.” The idea with that is to place things you want to remember into rooms you can see in your mind. Mine had a room for every major period in music history. It was extensive. These days I use Anki to learn concepts that take a lot of repetition to stick.
Computer people have a gift for making things fun to remember. The G in GNU stands for GNU, which stands for “GNU’s Not Unix,” which stands for … well, you can see why I like it. YAGNI is handy in a different way: if I remember “You Aren’t Gonna Need It” just as I’m about to build a feature nobody needs (at least not yet), those five letters can save me a pile of work.
The terms and lists in yoga philosophy have helped me notice what I do out of habit and get curious about what else I could try. I wanted something that felt true to what I’d learned from yoga and that I could remember as soon as my mind said, “I want out of this pose.” Four letters seemed about right.
NERD stands for Notice, Experiment, Review, and Decide. Let’s NERD out about Chair Pose.
N: Notice
Start by feeling what’s happening in the pose. Your legs are working to support you. How’s your breathing? Can you wiggle your toes? What’s up with your jaw?
Maybe your toes are holding on for dear life. Or you might notice that you’re clenching your jaw.
You don’t need to make a case against your jaw. Just notice it. “Huh, my jaw is tight.” That gives you something to explore.
E: Experiment
Try one small change. In this case, you could soften your jaw while keeping your legs engaged.
Other experiments might involve moving higher in the posture, changing the position of your arms, or using support. You could also discover that engaging your legs more deliberately helps you feel steadier.
Choose something you can explore comfortably. You can come out of the posture whenever you need to. The question is simple: what happens when I change this?
R: Review
Feel what happened. Did your breathing change? Did the adjustment help you feel more supported? Did something else tighten? How about that jaw?
Reviewing can take a breath or two. You don’t need a spreadsheet or an internal committee meeting to debate the merits of your choice.
Maybe your adjustment helped. It might have made no noticeable difference. Or maybe you prefer how things felt before. Each response gives you information for whatever you choose next.
D: Decide
Based on what you noticed, decide what comes next. You might stay as you are, try another adjustment, or come out and rest. You get to choose how you respond.
As you continue, the conditions change. Your legs might get tired or your attention might wander. Something that helped a minute ago might need another adjustment.
You can keep learning from the experience. Over time, you may recognize your habits sooner and find more ways to respond. There can be pleasure in discovering that one small change makes a familiar practice feel different.
Take Your NERD to Work
You can try this at your desk, too, if you have one. Suppose you’re writing a difficult email and notice your shoulders tightening.
Notice the tension. Experiment with taking your hands off the keyboard and letting your arms rest for a few breaths. Review what changed. Then decide what to try next. You might return to writing, reread the message, or give yourself more time before replying.
You probably still have to respond to the email. Maybe you try one of those legendary one-word emails like Steve Jobs. You can experiment with how much tension you bring to the task.
I shared the NERD method in a yoga class recently, and one student said he preferred 3-letter acronyms and that NED worked better for him. If something works better for you, go for it! I have no delusions that this is the perfect acronym, but it taps into my inner nerd.
Pick something ordinary today, such as standing at the sink, sitting at your desk, or holding a yoga posture. Notice what’s happening, change one thing, and feel the difference. Get a little NERDy about it.
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