Beyond the Physical

When a student asked one of my teachers if he thought her yoga practice was improving, he replied, “Ask your loved ones.”  The true signs of an advancing yogi are not just a stronger and more supple body.  Yoga practiced regularly and properly should create a calmer, more caring, centered, tolerant, patient, and loving individual, and who would know better if you are improving in these areas than your loved ones?

It is easy to get caught up with solely the physical aspects of our practice, but then we risk forgetting the deeper gifts that yoga has to offer.  We are more than just a collection of bones and muscles.  A bendy back, a perfectly executed arm balance, and a flat stomach may be visually appealing but yoga is not a performance nor is it a “spectator sport.”  It doesn’t matter how your practice looks; it matters how it feels.  How can you move in a way that allows the most possible freedom and harmony within your whole being?

As a yoga teacher, I think of the words and cues I say as “suggestions,” not as the absolute and only way.  When it comes down to it, I can’t feel what you feel and I can’t know your inner experience in each pose.  That is why my students will often hear me say, “Listen inside.  There is more than one right answer.”

Yoga teaches us to get out of the habit of waiting for someone else to tell us what to do and how to do it.  Our practice teaches us to turn inward and trust our inner voice.  Yoga is an internal experience, a process of peeling back the layers of ego to uncover our True Selves.

Next time you find yourself in a yoga class comparing your poses and your body to the other people in the room, stop.  Close your eyes.  Focus inside.  Feel your breath moving you. How does it feel to be alive in this body today?  Be with whatever the experience is for you right now.  Let your body be breathed, be moved, intuitively… There is more than one right answer.

“People follow different paths, straight or crooked, according to their temperament, depending on which they consider best, or more appropriate – and all reach You, just as all rivers enter the ocean.” ~ The Upanishads   

Playlist #2: Mellow Mix 

 Gymnopedies - Claude Debussy 

 Bach Cello Concerto - Yo-Yo Ma 

 Together - Wade Imre Morisette 

 Sunrise - Norah Jones 

 One Flight Down - Norah Jones 

 In My Place - Coldplay 

 In the Lord’s Arms - Ben Harper 

 Free Fallin’ (Live) - John Mayer 

 Wild Horses - Rolling Stones 

 Toes - Norah Jones 

 Stop This Train - John Mayer 

 Gravity - John Mayer 

 Come Away With Me - Norah Jones 

 Beloved One - Ben Harper 

 Imagine - John Lennon 

 Sri Ram Jai Ram - Krishna Das 

 Such Great Heights - Iron & Wine

Not Rushing

When we arrive to our yoga class, we hurry to find a parking spot, rush to sign in, push our way through the room to find “our spot”, set ourselves up, organize our belongings, and take a seat on our mats… Then, finally, we take a deep breath: “Aaaaaah…” and it may be the first complete, conscious breath we have taken all day.  We begin to attempt the difficult task of letting go of everything that happened before we arrived to our practice. We allow ourselves to start slowing down.  It is at this precise moment that we realize how rushed the rest of our morning, afternoon, or day has been. Our perspective subtly shifts from “doing” into “being” and we relax.

As we flow through our practice, we attempt to move with intention and with grace.  We recognize that to accomplish this, we must slow down our minds and our bodies.  It is not possible to rush AND to move with grace. Grace, elegance, and poise come from a place of peace.

Unfortunately, a strange thing happens to many of us when we leave our mats.  Sometimes it even creeps up on us in Savasana, before we have even completed our practice!  Stress, impatience, and a sense of urgency starts to set in. We fall back into the cloud of unconscious, stress-driven rushing. We seem to have a sense that if we do not rush, nothing will get done. 

In fact, the opposite is true. Through slow, deliberate, intentional action, we find success in our daily dealings.  How many opportunities are we missing when we rush?  Maybe what we need most is what is right in front of us, trying to get our attention while we are too busy rushing toward something else. 

What would happen if we left our yoga class and continued to move slowly and deliberatelyoff the mat? Would nothing get done? Or would we find that life is NOT rushing by us as we assume it is?  Would we find that everything is moving and happening just as it is meant to? And that by moving slowly we are able to see, think, and speak more clearly, our minds are more focused, and we are able to make better decisions instead of haphazardly rushing through this extraordinary world?  

“If your eyes are ears are open, you will see the windows of opportunity open around you.” Cherie Carter-Scott

“If I could begin life again, I should want it just as it was, only I would open my eyes more.” Jules Renard

 Playlist: for Peace & Love

 Peace Train ’03 - Yusum Islam 

 Speed of Sound - Coldplay 

 Sand in my Shoes - Maroon 5 

 One Drop - Bob Marley 

 Let My Love Open the Door - Eddie Vedder 

 Peace Like a River (Remastered version) - Paul Simon 

 One Love/People Get Ready - Bob Marley and the Wailers 

 Take on Me - A.C. Newman 

 Doors of Perception - Thievery Corporation 

 Sol Tapado - Thievery Corporation 

 The Heart of Life - John Mayer 

 Time Will Tell - Bob Marley 

 Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door - Bob Dylan 

 Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel 

 Still - Wade Imre Morrisette

The Mat – A Sacred Space; Your Body – A Temple

When I come to my mat, I like to enter it as I would a church, a temple, a dojo.  I enter my mat with reverence and with as much sauca, or purity, as possible.  This means clearing the mind of any distracting or negative thoughts. I often find that when I do my practice for me, it becomes very competitive. I push myself hard, and I compare myself to others to rate how well I am doing.

If I can shift that focus and do my practice as an act of gratitude to something bigger than myself – call it God, Allah, Brahman, Universal consciousness – then my intentions become pure and my practice, in turn, becomes effortless. My body becomes like an instrument through which I worship the Divine, making every breath a silent prayer, every movement an offering. 

The next time you come to your mat to begin a yoga practice, feel grateful for your healthy body, this vehicle that you have been loaned to move through this beautiful world. Recognize that everything is sacred, the earth beneath you, the sky above you. Become quiet inside, turn your attention inward, fill yourself with gratitude and experience the joy of the Divine breathing you, moving you.

From M. R. Bawa Mukaiyaddeen: “For those who have come to grow, the whole world is a garden. For those who have come to learn, the whole world is a university.  For those who have come to know God, the whole world is a prayer mat.” 

Aparigraha

Aparigraha means non-hoarding. It follows non-violence, truth, non-stealing, and moderation as the fifth of the five yamas, or moral restraints, required for spiritual liberation of a yogi. Non-hoarding is thought to be the most subtle of the five necessary restraints.

Aparigraha implies reducing the clutter in your life, both physically and mentally. The more “stuff” we have, the more stuff we have to worry and stress about. We think our possessions provide us comfort but really they give us more stuff to take care of, more things to worry about. The more cluttered and full our life is, the less space we have to let in the new and the less ease we have in flowing with the constant changes of this impermanent world. We become caught up with our “stuff” and overly concerned with protecting what is “mine.”

What we have will never be enough if we are living from this low frequency of fear, greed, and hoarding. We falsely believe that we need MORE, but really we need LESS. The Yoga Sutras tell us that we are inherently perfect. We are born as bodies of bliss but have gotten so lost in the clutter that we have created, that we have forgotten our true selves. 

The mind is this way. If you pack your mind with thoughts, it becomes cramped in the same way that a small room filled with stuff does. Eventually the mind gets so full, there is no space for You anymore! If you can learn to let go of stuff you no longer need (past hurts, injustices, fears, judgments, opinions), you allow space for new ideas, creations, inspirations, and love to come in. You make yourself an empty vessel to receive. You allow Spirit to think, speak, and act through you.

The opposite of stress is faith. When you have faith, you don’t feel the need to steadfastly grip on to everything, because you know the Universe will provide for you. Everything that you need will come when you need it, so there is no reason to hold on to everything that passes by you. Faith is recognizing that the Universe doesn’t always give you what you want, but it always gives you what you need.

Reflect on what you have in your life right now that is creating clutter: unnecessary material possessions, unhealthy relationships, self-sabotaging or hateful thoughts. Ask yourself why you are holding on to this “stuff.” Are you scared to allow space for the new to come in? And you afraid the Universe will not provide you with what you need? Have courage. Look inside and realize that you already have everything you need. Have faith to let go of the extraneous mess that blocks your ability to live fully. See what you can let go of this month and then notice all of the wonderful new things that enter in.