“Practice” is what we call our inner work and the movement through the asanas when on the mat. Has anyone ever questioned what we are practicing for or what practice actually means?
Many that show up for yoga practice often don’t realize that not only are they practicing in the verb tense, but that they are taking part in the application of an idea, belief, or method, as opposed to theories relating to it. Yoga is a spiritual practice where we focus on applying many spiritual principles while in the self-inflicted intensity of the asanas. It is a place where we discover truth. On the mat, we are able to see our reactions to tough circumstances within a safe space. We are able to witness our confidence, excitement, initial reactions, fears, resistance and so much more as we move through the physical poses. It is a place where we can remain fully in the moment and aware of what comes up so that we might heal it.
It’s my personal belief that if you can be a kind person in the heat of the moment, when chaos abounds, stress hits, and your emotions start ramping up readying you for battle, you can be a kind person anywhere. I am convinced that internal stress is the enemy we must each learn to defeat. It is for this reason that the physical practice of yoga is so critical to one’s spiritual growth. Some poses heighten your stress level and attempt to bring out the worst in you. With consistent practice, you learn how to breathe through it rather than react out of pain, stress, or discomfort. You gain more control over your reactions on the mat and off of it. My focus is really in helping people react in much kinder ways off of the mat and the anatomy and physical intelligence of the practice is not the reason why I continue to practice and teach, though that too is awesome in its own right.
Yoga is not just a style of “work-out” though it does thoroughly work “you” out… physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It is a way of life. It is a path to loving kindness. It is warrior training for life. Generally, when we think of a warrior, we think of someone who physically fights their opponents. This is not what I mean at all. I am talking about a spiritual warrior, one who can tackle the demons within themselves and others with love and kindness, disarming egos and lighting up the world where darkness once existed. When I look at Jesus, I see the ultimate warrior. I see someone who the outside world could not touch, could not shake, could not deter from the mission of love. I see someone who was chose love even as the very souls he was trying to save crucified him. How often do we crucify love as participants in this world? Jesus, for all his glory, also had to be refined and tested in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. I equate yoga to willingly allowing ourselves to be tested and refined on our mat so that we may rise to our highest selves.
We willingly submit ourselves to the proverbial fire (tapas) to be tested. We allow ourselves to sit with discomfort, sometimes shaking and sweating during practice. We know that if we just breathe through it and focus on the next best thought, we can make it through it stronger (in all ways) than we were before. We meditate on what is happening within our minds, bodies, and spirits as we work out our “salvation” on the mat knowing that if we allow ourselves to remain reactive to every little discomfort in our lives it will amount to continued suffering. We know that it is only through the discomfort that there is freedom and growth! We become more and more fearless each time we hit our mat, for we also know that fear and love cannot coexist. One must submit to the other and we choose to become masters over our fear and exercise our birthright to experience love.
Fear is as a cloud is over the sun. It blocks light from seeping into our souls. Just as a garden needs water and sun to grow, we need love and nurturing. When we operate from a place of fear in life and close ourselves off from love, we wither. Withering is the equivalent of depression, anxiety, sadness, lack of fulfillment, confidence and other positive feelings. Working out our salvation is basically preventing ourselves from wilting and spiritually dying. It’s allowing ourselves to experience love, joy, happiness, confidence, fulfillment, etc. It’s allowing ourselves to feel alive and appreciative of all experience that we encounter knowing that we are worthy of what we call “good” and that the so-called “bad” is just experience that will refine us so that we are better equipped to fulfill our purpose. It’s a blessing all the same. In fact, refinement is the ultimate blessing because it means we are worthy, we are loved enough to be corrected, guided, taught, and brought higher and higher until we reach the proverbial mountain top or “heaven on Earth.”
Anyone who has ever climbed a mountain knows how challenging it can be at times to keep going. It gets uncomfortable, especially on steep climbs. Your legs are burning. Your butt is aching. You are winded from climbing. Often your sweaty and cold at the same time. Yet, reaching the top and experiencing the magnificence from the summit makes this struggle so worthwhile. To have a birds eye view of the clouds, sprawling land beneath, and to realize both your smallness and your power all at the same time is awesome. It’s fulfilling. That is one of my goals in life… fulfillment. I want to be refined and tested so that when I am buried I go to the grave the highest version of myself that I could possibly have been. I don’t want to be left mediocre because I took the “easy” road. I certainly don’t want to make the cemetery rich. Myles Monroe’s final sermon speaks of the cemetery being the richest place on Earth because it is full of potential that was never lived out.
“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.“
– Matthew 16:25
I want to write until the thoughts stop flowing through. I want to dance and move this body until it is incapable of doing so. I want to give everything I feel inspired to create away before it’s too late. I don’t want to be a fearful person who “plays it safe.” I want to give my life away while I still have it to give in a way that helps to heal and bring peace to this world. These are the many reasons why I continue to practice yoga. Yoga is a pathway to enlightenment. It is a pathway to our higher selves when we practice with full attention, willingness, and love. Practicing asana is a way of building confidence, shifting perspectives, overcoming fear, and allowing yourself to feel uncomfortable and overcome again and again without any majorly scary consequences. It is practice for life… the assumption being that if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere… I’m from New York… Just kidding… from Massachusetts, but I digress.
What are you willing to submit yourself to in order to allow your less desirable thought patterns to burn away? How would it feel to be free of all that entraps you? How would it feel to live life unencumbered by fear, doubt, smallness, shame, and anger? Can you imagine it? If so, I encourage you to take a step onto the mat and start practicing and working out your own salvation.