YOGA OPENS DOOR TO YOUR TRUE NATURE
Whether you are exploring our national parks or exploring the parks where you live, when we sit outside and take in the colours, sounds and smells of nature, we are transported to a more spiritual realm. Time nestled in nature leaves us feeling nourished and connected.
Similarly, when we practise yoga, we give ourselves a break from that which stirs around us. We take time to just be. We walk into the room as we truly are, free from who we are outside of the yoga room.
In nature and in our yoga, our senses are heightened and we are very aware of our present experience and rediscovering the depths of who we are.
The word yoga comes from the root word ‘yoke’ and is about yoking together the fluctuations of the mind, with the innate intelligence of the body, the flow of the breath and the wisdom of the heart.
Grab a pen and a piece of paper and try this simple exercise. (Writing as opposed to typing allows the hands to feel the letters being formed and imprints more deeply into our inner psyche.)
Think of who you are, and what words you would choose to describe yourself.
Write down the words that instantly spring to your mind. Now write down words others may use to describe you. (You may even want to have a few columns here for the different people in your life such as your family, friends, the people you work with or share common interests with.)
Look at the words you have chosen without judgment.
You may have chosen words such as partner/wife/husband, employee/employer, parent, child, friend, or any other identifier or titles that describes what you do or who you are right now.
We are so used to identifying ourselves as others see us, that we lose perspective of who we truly are deep in our souls.
Titles we carry change, and often when they do, we can feel lost. When we identify with our titles, we are identifying with our ego.
If we lose what we perceive as who we are, such as our jobs, cars, homes, our health, what we wear, what we earn, whom we socialize with, we may feel that we have lost a part of ourselves. Yet, when things are destroyed we come to rediscover parts of ourselves that may have been forgotten.
Yoga practice has at its roots the creation story of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva. Vishnu is the great sustainer, Brahma is the creator and Shiva is the destroyer. Everything that is created, is sustained, and eventually destroyed.
It is the metaphor of a life cycle and all held within a lifetime.
It is what we practise on the yoga mat time and time again.
We create and recreate postures. We work at sustaining each posture. And we destroy what we create over and over again.
As we destroy each pose and come out of them, we feel freer in breath, body and spirit.
We rediscover parts of ourselves we have forgotten and we feel things spring to life within us.
Now, on a fresh piece of paper write down who you truly are, beyond the titles you carry and how others define you.
Think of how you would describe yourself as a child. These words will be very different. They may be words like exhausted, depleted, love, anxious, present, lost, grounded, ungrounded, joyful, fearful, free, bound, worried, defeated, strong, empowered, powerful, creative, happy, unhappy, funny, organized, disorganized.
These answers could change often, sometimes daily, and maybe even hourly.
It is easier to list the titles than to meet the emotions swirling within us, fuelled by the stories we tell ourselves in our heads.
Tapping into our emotions and learning to view ourselves more objectively requires constant practice and attention.
We practise putting ourselves in uncomfortable positions and adjust internally to find the comfort amid the discomfort.
We practise releasing our ego of what we think we should be able to accomplish and learn to always be in studentship with ourselves, mind, intelligence, breath and spirit.
The practice of yoga encourages us to lift whatever illusion we have of ourselves and who we think we are. We come to know ourselves more authentically and to listen more to what’s in our hearts and less to what’s in our heads.
Bring some simple seated postures into your day. Feel your breath and heighten your senses.
Give yourself time to meet yourself where you are right now.