For the month of September, I’ve decided to focus my writing primarily around yoga related topics in honor of National Yoga Month. Honestly, I didn’t know that there was such a thing as National Yoga Month, but I guess there is a day and a month for everything these days, especially when it comes to social media. As the book of Ecclesiastes so eloquently states in Chapter 3:
For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
This month, I feel it is time to give the practice of yoga the proper respect it deserves as it has been instrumental in the changes I’ve made in my life and it’s my duty to share the gift with others. If you’ve read any of my other work surrounding the topic of yoga, you’ll understand that yoga is NOT JUST A WORKOUT! I feel it is a travesty that the West often portrays it this way when marketing. It is so much more. It is a resource for introspection that allows you to discover who you truly are and treat yourself accordingly. It is about yoking all facets of your being together so that there is no division between your mind and emotions or body and mind, or emotions and body. Everything is integrated, connected, and working in union. As a believer in God, it’s about yoking one’s spirit to God, but I wouldn’t let that term dissuade you from stepping onto the mat and engaging in the yogic principles if you are atheist or agnostic. As all spiritual seekers eventually come to find, God is bigger than we could ever imagine and encompasses everyone and everything. God is life, God is energy, God is everything… in my opinion, if you believe life is valuable and should be lived in love and treated as such, then you are worshiping God. Don’t let the term “God” in my writing scare you away. Stick with me and see if you can relate in any way. In fact, my mat became an unexpected church for me where I listen to the life within me and discover more about it, what it wants, and also what it doesn’t.
Yoga is a resource for self-discovery, healing, and self-actualization. If you’ve ever taken a psychology course, you’ll recall Maslow’s hierarchy with self-actualization at the top of the pyramid. It’s basically the top of the echelon where one has fulfilled the other tiers and is now moving toward becoming their highest self:
The physical body is used as a tool to gain insight into your mental and spiritual bodies. As you soon find out when attending a yoga asana class, your body is always speaking to you and most remain unaware. When we tune in, we can gain valuable insight into our well-being, emotional state, and mental states and then make adjustments that serve us. The breath, too, speaks. As we move through each asana (movement/pose), we remain aware of our breathing. Has it become shallow? Is it slow and steady? Does it feel as though I am not able to get enough air? Where do I feel breath in my body? How does it differ from posture to posture? There are so many nuances that can be embraced even when a practitioner has been practicing for decades. The practice isn’t necessarily in the postures, but in the attentiveness you bring to them.
When we start tuning into our state of being on the mat, we soon find that we’ve become more aware off of the mat. We notice the tightness rising in our chest as someone says something we don’t like. We feel the stress of a rough day at work within our neck and shoulders. We feel the dancing in our stomach as we step out of our comfort zone to do something new. Our vision has been enhanced and we notice so much more than what we ever did before. With this heightened awareness comes more choice. As we see what rises within us, we interpret it, pause, and then consciously choose how we will respond in any given situation. This slowing down and pausing is everything and is a skill that one must develop in order to truly master themselves and harness their full energy in this world.
If it is our physical body we want to “master,” then we quickly notice how big a part intention plays in reaching our physical goals. Moving intentionally, noticing where our body is in space, shifting weight from one muscle to another, and adapting to changes in shape are key here. We play with space as well as with form in the art of yoga. Yoga is both art and science. One can dig deeply into the anatomy and physiology of the body as a practitioner or take a deeper, more poetic, and spiritual approach. Either way, there is so much to gain and really nothing to lose. Yoga is for everybody (short, tall, white, black, brown, female, male, old, young, skinny, fat, muscular, average, etc.)! In fact, I hate that ads for yoga make it seem as though it is solely for certain types of people… mainly white thin women. It is for them too, but also for everyone who meets none of those criteria. I want my teaching to be to a diverse audience and that is one of my goals.
There is so much I could continue to go into here, but I am going to dedicate time each day to share different facets of the practice instead. Stay with me through the month of September, and hopefully thereafter. I’ll be covering a lot and there will be some giveaways also… stay tuned!