I love my yoga practice. Don’t worry, I’m not here to preach or push a yoga practice onto you for whatever form of exercise or practice you take to look after your body is the right one for you.
I just want to share what it is that I’ve discovered whilst being on the mat. I’ve found that yoga has so many, many metaphors for life. Here’s just a few that I think will help;
During one practice my teacher said, “Be like bamboo; strong and steadfast, though flexible and able to bend when the wind is blowing.”
Isn’t that such a good rule for life?!
And this; find equanimity. Meet life where life is meeting you. Find the balance between effort and ease. We obviously don’t want to be overdoing it, but we do want to be challenging ourselves and going beyond the ‘easy,’ in other words, our comfort zones. How else would we improve our practice? (Whatever our ‘practice’ is ;-))
We never start yoga by going straight into the poses, straight away. We start off slow, steady. We commence with little movements which slowly warm us up into bigger movements. We warm the body gradually and set good foundations for the more challenging poses to come. I think this is a fantastic metaphor to take off the mat and onto the street! Start off gradually and set good foundations – in anything – be it relationships, businesses or new tasks. Anything!
Do what feels right for you today. Every yoga class asks us to check in with ourselves and see how we’re feeling today. Today is different to yesterday and it will be different to tomorrow. You may have a strong and powerful practice today and a weak and mediocre one tomorrow, requiring more rest. Whatever it is, we are asked to pay attention and honour this. How many times do we not honour our feeling in the moment, in life?
Surrender into the pose. When we surrender and give up the struggle, we are able to go deeper and further. We are often surprised by just how far we can go. Hmmmmm
Let your breath be your mind’s distraction. This does not translate literally, however, I believe this speaks beautifully to the concept of presence. Whenever we are doing something, anything, we must remain focussed, keeping our mind distracted or our consistent ‘monkey’ thoughts at bay. Focus on the task at hand and give your mind over. Be with whatever you are doing in the moment.
It’s ok to smile. Many, many times during my practice when the pose is challenging the teacher reminds us all to smile. And we do. And we stop taking ourselves so seriously. The simple act of turning the corners of your mouth up allows you to inject some happiness into the moment, no matter how challenging.
Always come back to breath. I am reading a phenomenal book called ‘Buddha’s Brain’ at the moment. In it, it speaks of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), our system for relaxation and rest. To engage this, all we need to do is breathe deeply.
Savasana. After working hard we must rest, restore and re-balance our systems. We must allow our bodies to process what has happened across the previous 60 – 90 minutes. Applying this to life, we must process what happens to us. Many of us are skimming along the surface, not allowing ourselves to fully feel or appreciate the happenings around us. We’re quick to move, at an often rapid pace, from one experience to the next without fully processing the experience. When we do this, we suppress. And when we suppress, we de-press ourselves.
They’re just my little musings. There must be many other metaphors that other yogi’s in our community can think of? Share with us in the comments below.
With love
Lynda
PS. If you like what I have to say or think someone else could benefit from this humble little blurb, feel free to ‘like it’ or ‘share it’
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