Like Dr. Seuss’s book, Oh The Places You’ll Go, perhaps some day I’ll write a book for my yoga students titled Oh The Obstacles You’ll Meet.
In class I often refer to these obstacles as “resistance”. When I first began the yoga asana practice I met the resistance of my hamstrings, my hips, and my spine. I met the resistance of neglected and denied emotions. I met the resistance of my self-doubt, the twisted knot of my lack of self-compassion, and the exhaustion of an unloved body. I met the resistance of a chronically dense sensation in my heart-center. I met the resistance of an over-active inner-critic. I met the resistance of an over-active perfectionist. Oh the Resistance I Met.
In the face of resistance on the yoga mat I have found the following questions to be very powerful and empowering tools: How am I meeting this resistance? Am I meeting this resistance with a fight - with my fists clenched, teeth gripped and shallow breath? Can I meet this resistance with its opposite - with a patient exhalation, a soft loose jaw and with loving compassion directed to the area of resistance?
Consider the lives and choices of Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Theresa and Gandhi. These individuals lives reflect the possibility (and power) in meeting resistance with something other than...more resistance. They met life's inevitable resistances with non-violence, calm, compassion and intelligence. Their lives teach me that since resistance is inevitable how I handle resistance is my only choice. Staying tuned to how I confront obstacles and choosing a love-based response to them is one way to practice living yoga off the mat.
Oh the Compassion We'll Cultivate.
The Human Soul, Alive and well in Ethiopia
The Human Spirit, Alive and Well in Ethiopia!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The Un-Nameable Something
A dear friend, Virginia, commented before class today, "So about all these technical manipulations of the body - arm bones back, inner spiral here, outer spiral there, tail bone in - something feels lacking. After all those manipulations something still feels lacking."
And the other day a dancer friend reflected, "You can be the most technically brilliant ballet dancer, but boring as hell to watch if you don't have that 'un-nameable something'".
And in less poetic terms I can offer this: Yes, we can do everything (on or off) the mat just "right" (just like our teachers or parents or bosses tell us) and we can still be f-ing miserable. We can still be dense, stuck and stale, even after having followed every little commandment and order of operations.
In the Anusara method, founded by John Friend, I find a response to “there’s something missing.” The first principle of alignment in Anusara yoga is “Open to Grace”. In my experience Opening to Grace is an expression for quieting the ego, the thinker, the do-er. Opening to Grace is a state of surrender, receptivity and luminescence that unfurls inside of us. To Open to Grace is to acknowledge with our inner most being the revelatory aspect of Spirit that has made itself known by our very existence. And it is from this state that we begin to witness our breath. It is from this state that the breath begins to inspire physical movement of “arm bones back, inner spiral here, outer spiral there...”
Virginia is so very right. The physical manipulations are but loud dense actions without first Opening to Grace, the ‘un-nameable something’, that I just gave a name to.
And the other day a dancer friend reflected, "You can be the most technically brilliant ballet dancer, but boring as hell to watch if you don't have that 'un-nameable something'".
And in less poetic terms I can offer this: Yes, we can do everything (on or off) the mat just "right" (just like our teachers or parents or bosses tell us) and we can still be f-ing miserable. We can still be dense, stuck and stale, even after having followed every little commandment and order of operations.
In the Anusara method, founded by John Friend, I find a response to “there’s something missing.” The first principle of alignment in Anusara yoga is “Open to Grace”. In my experience Opening to Grace is an expression for quieting the ego, the thinker, the do-er. Opening to Grace is a state of surrender, receptivity and luminescence that unfurls inside of us. To Open to Grace is to acknowledge with our inner most being the revelatory aspect of Spirit that has made itself known by our very existence. And it is from this state that we begin to witness our breath. It is from this state that the breath begins to inspire physical movement of “arm bones back, inner spiral here, outer spiral there...”
Virginia is so very right. The physical manipulations are but loud dense actions without first Opening to Grace, the ‘un-nameable something’, that I just gave a name to.
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