"Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, love
is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life
moves."
Nisargadatta Maharaj
If I am to believe the images that yoga marketing and media promote I will be a real yogi when I can tie myself in knots like a pretzel while standing on my head. Of course, I need to either have a look of sublime ‘I am so blissed out’ aka as my partner refers to it ‘the yoga stone’ or a look of stern seriousness. I am not having a go at the magazines/websites etc as the accompanying texts often extol approaching yoga with loving kindness and acceptance of our potential as well as our limitations.
I admit I am very flexible though lack strength and can indeed make pretzel like shapes with my body on occasion, however, my attraction to yoga at a physical level is for strength, stability and balance. The benefits to my mental and emotional well being have been tremendous and this is what keeps coming back for more.
Wild thing. Photo by Marc Perri
Physical humbling...
Over the years, I have generally been able to keep up a regular asana/pranayama physical yoga practice until last year. I was really unwell and for months found it difficult to even make it to my mat (or even out of bed) let alone perform a pose more difficult than child’s pose. I had time to really think about what my yoga practice could be although with not much sleep even thinking was difficult. Each action throughout the day is yoga if done with connection: breath, body, mind and spirit. I think Elisabeth Bailey captured this idea in her book “The Sound of One Snail Eating.” A great read when you are resting and rejuvenating from your life of doing!
Yoga is not all about poses although it does appear this way in many Western yoga classes- asana, asana, asana! Sure we can reconnect and explore amazing insights/breakthroughs via the body but surely the myriad of yoga practice/inspiration offers so much more. A rest from physical practice is still yoga as yoga is a way to move through and with the cosmic swirl not as separate but together. Meditation and mindfulness practices can be done even when visible movement is not possible…each moment is a chance to embrace the now.
Mental bumbling...
I like doing as many in the modern day do - busy, busy, busy, do, do, do - which brings me to humility… when you learn to 'be' not 'do' and find contentment in this state knowing it is enough to not need to prove anything to anyone.
Definition: humility
[hyoo-mil-i-tee]
noun
1. the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.
Humility is a state of being that cracks open our delusion our little nest is immune from life’s ups and downs and throws us head first into the fire. Humility strips us down and removes illusions of being secure, of being apart from others or in some way different. It helps us recognise with full force how delicate, vulnerable and exquisitely beautiful nature truly is and how it all changes, transforms and is ephemeral just like our thoughts, emotions, responses and our bodies.
Making mandalas helps me to quieten down and become in the flow with the rhythm of nature. A meditation practice. The wind in the trees, the hum of the bees, the beat of my heart - all one moving together. The mandalas do not last they blow away in the wind, get trampled by the rain, and like thoughts arise and dissolve. They are humbling...nature does not create this amazing beauty with idea that it will last forever. It keeps changing, morphing, transforming.
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