Yoga is all about practicing different states of being. As we journey through our practice we experience different bodily states of self-induced stress followed by calmness. In riding the wave of our practice, we coast on the crest of intensity followed by the crash of the wave back into peace. The practice lies in staying present throughout all of it and embracing it as it flows.
Yoga is life. Yoga is another wise teacher in my classroom constantly guiding me and teaching me how to thrive internally despite what is happening externally. The more I practice, the more connected I become to my bodily sensations. It’s an exercise in awareness, watching your thoughts float by as you enter challenging positions and stay with them long enough to feel the edge set in. The edge is the point where you feel you can’t possibly stay one more moment. It’s the point where you hear the reactivity creep up in your mind that says, “New pose, new pose, new pose, I can’t do this anymore.”
When we can take ourselves to the edge in each pose, and push ourselves just a little more, then a little more, and continue this progression, we begin to see ourselves expand. We see that we are capable of what we thought we couldn’t do. We see that we are in control of our thoughts when we witness them throughout our practice and allow them to be what they are without judgment. We realize that we can intervene in our reactive thoughts and breathe ourselves through it. By staying connected to our center and to our breath, we realize who we are. We realize that we are not the situations around us or even the physical sensations we experience, we are the witness watching it all happen and participating from that place everything changes.
When we can get to that place, we realize that we are ok no matter what is happening and there is a sense of peace and security in that. There is a sense of comfort, freedom, and courage in this knowing. Yoga has helped me to integrate all parts of me so that they operate in synergy. Yoga has helped me to witness myself and the world from a place of love. If someone would have told me this before I’d started my own practice, I would have told them it is no different than any other work out. I would have doubted that a physical experience could manifest so much beauty within my inner being. Yet, from experience, I can say the proof is in the practice.
Admittedly, my yoga practice was rooted in my spirituality from the start and was a supplement to my budding relationship with God at the time. Yoga was not the only method of growing deeper that I’d delved into on this journey, but it has been one of the major contributors toward my growth and allowed me to put into practice a lot of the lessons I’d learned through my readings.
Many addiction groups tout the fact that the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Yoga and meditation assist in cultivating the self-awareness we need to step back and bare witness to our self-talk and mindset, which then feeds our actions, which then determines the direction of our life. This is a skill that far too many individuals have failed to cultivate.
It’s interesting when I talk to people about meditation, many say that they couldn’t meditate because they can’t stop thinking. I always have to explain to them that they are missing the point. The point of meditation is not to “stop thinking,” but to be aware of what you are thinking as you think it. Then as you grow in your meditations, the focus becomes detaching from the thoughts… simply seeing them come and go. At some point, you start gaining more and more ability to focus your thoughts with intention, which is where I think the misunderstanding of meditation as “not thinking” comes from. The goal of meditation is to stop thinking thoughts that you do not wish to think so that you hone in on your personal power to direct your energy in ways that you desire rather than having your energy misfire all over the place because you can’t seem to get a hold of your thoughts. Most of us have our brains running on auto-pilot until we take the time to learn this skill. This misfiring process is dangerous for our health and the health of those around us.
We owe it to ourselves to gain some assemblance of control over our minds. When we can do this, we become amazingly powerful and no longer prisoner of self-defeating habits, thought patterns, self-inflicted emotions, etc. We become free! The fabulous thing about this, is that anyone can do this with practice and the willpower to see themselves clearly. It is not solely for the spiritually minded folks. There are no “holy” criteria that makes meditation suitable for some and not others. There is no physical requirement other than the fact that you are living and experience thoughts to begin this practice.
If sitting still and silent does not call to you, that is where yoga would be perfect for you to start with. I dare you to start witnessing your mind. It’s a beautifully entertaining, sometimes scary, mechanism to behold and in it there is so much power. You deserve to gain your power back and intentionally cultivate your life from the inside out.
Namaste!
Have you tried yoga or meditation? If not, what stops you? If you’ve tried and did not like it, why? If you currently practice, share some of the growth that you’ve experienced in your own personal practice.