Yoga: a way to being calm and steady or just a good stretch?

Yoga

What is yoga? 

My explanation - yoga is a way of being, a way of life, an art form if you like, a holistic system of self transformation, a way to connect deeply with ourselves, others and understand via experience that we are the universe. Yet many people believe yoga is firstly, just physical exercise and secondly, a way to have good stretch. 

A key text the yoga sutras of Patanjali's tells us in the second sutra that "yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively towards an object and sustain that direction without any distractions" (Desikachar, T.K.V., 1995) and yet in this crazy modern world here in the West it appears that despite yoga's popularity it is still largely misunderstood.

And here is my evidence - whenever, I am asked what I do for a living and I say I'm a yoga teacher I get a few common responses - "Oh I have always wanted to try yoga', 'Great! I should stretch more', and my personal favourite just 'oh' and then quickly look at the floor or change the subject. Even after 6 years of teaching and suggesting yoga is about being calm and steady I still have students thanking me for a class that gave them a good stretch or sometimes the opposite demanding they feel a stretch 'I'm not getting a stretch!' they cry.

If I had  a dollar for every time I have heard that yoga is all about flexibility, about stretching then I would be wealthy indeed no need to teach I could just be. Now everyone learns at a different speed and as a teacher once said to me they will learn when they need to - when the time is right. Patience. And that often teachers teach what they themselves need to learn...in my case to relax more and slow down. 

Inverloch Australia Photo M. Porter

So where does that leave us?

Traditionally, yoga was transmitted between a teacher and their student (one-on-one). This gave the teacher a real opportunity to get to know their student and tailor a practice just for them. However, today where yoga is taught in group classes and often large group classes where it would be impossible for the teacher even an amazingly good one to get around and ensure the practice was made safe for each person let alone individually appropriate. Interestingly, yoga was also seen as a therapeutic practice - not a stretching competition or a good work out - designed by a guru to suit the physical/mental/emotional/spiritual needs of their student. Perhaps it is no wonder that many people - around 50% - try a yoga class and never return.

My understanding of yoga is that you should be able to be at ease and calm in a pose, that you could have a normal conversation and that stretching/tensing is not really involved. One of my favourite teachers Simon Borg-Olivier repeats: "Bend less, stretch less, tense less, think less, eat less."

And my friends, it gets more curious when you consult the ancient sutras for there is not a single word about increasing/improving your flexibility or stretching. Surprised!

Immmmmm so what does, for example, Patanjali’s yoga sutras say about asanas

Sutra 2.46 Sthira sukham asanam

A yoga posture must possess the qualities of stability and ease.

Sutra 2.47 Prayatna saithilya ananta samapattibhyam

Practice asana by applying appropriate effort and contemplating the Infinite.

And as a result

Sutra 2.48 Tatah dvanda anabhighata

Then you become undisturbed by life’s challenges.

I love this translation for this is such different approach to what most yoga appears to be in classes, workshops, retreats and online. In fact, if we judged yoga from instagram yoga would be about  trying to achieve the deepest form of a pose all the time. Perhaps ask yourself this the next time you consider moving physically deeper into a pose seeking out that elusive stretch am I doing yoga? Or am I simply stretching?

Ask yourself?

Does the deepest form of the pose make me feel stable, quiet and at ease? 

How much and what kind of effort am I putting into the pose? 

What am I thinking while I am doing the pose?

What is my ultimate goal?

Perhaps another way of saying this is are you doing yoga or is yoga doing you? Increasingly, I am seeing my yoga friends fall by the wayside as they succumb to injuries quite possibly bought on by forcing their bodies to open in ways that may not be healthy. And indeed, ponder me,  miss bendy wendy have I been simply flopping into poses because I can without considering the concept of stability and will I too be a car crash on the yoga highway.

More to consider...

Does the way I practice enhance my life?

Or am I simply chasing increasingly difficult body contortions even though I know yoga is not a competition?

Go on answer those questions - honestly!

If you are truly following the yoga path to profound and deep connection with oneness, God, spirit, nature whatever you wish to call the mighty life force, then now is the time to really instill, ingrain those powerful sutras into your skin, muscles, bone, into your  marrow and deep into your consciousness.

A few years ago I went to weekend workshop where we chanted the actual sutras as we were practising (I apologise for my dreadful sanskrit). And then we chanted them mentally to ourselves through meditation.

 sutra 2.46 Sthira sukham asanam 

May you be calm and steady as the waves of life dance and cascade around you.

Om shanti,

Margot xx