Yoga

Wow...long time no post. To be honest, not much has happened to me of late...or at least nothing that I deemed worthy of a blog post. Because only really important and meaningful stuff is allowed on blogs, right?

I once heard David Swenson, yogi extraordinaire, talk of his youth in Texas. As a teen his asana practice was already very advanced and he took it upon himself to teach fellow yogis (many of whom were much older than him) how to turn their bodies into pretzels. He did this in a local park and was soon confronted with none other than the police, sirens blaring and officers shouting at him to cease his practice. Apparently it appeared as if he were leading some type of cult, something the conservative local cops were not keen on. Clearly, it seemed, arranging your body into something resembling a tree (vrksasana) would result in an apocalypse. Come to think of it, it was probably scorpion pose (vrishchikasana) or warrior II (virabhadrasana II) that set the alarm bells off. They look a lot more badass. Seriously, get over it - yoga is not some kinda of black art. There is no double, double toil and trouble (OK, there might be a bit of toiling - asanas can be hard work!). In his commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Swami Satchidananda clearly states that yoga cannot change any external objects or other people. Duh...that would be impossible. There are, after all, laws of physics. So if yoga can't change things then what's the point? Turns out it affects  the way we see others - we appreciate them for their true selves, as our mind is free of mental modifications (i.e. distorted ideas, false assumptions, old habits, etc.). If yoga cannot alter the outside world then surely it can alter us, right? In fact, it turns out that yoga can't even really create or destroy anything inside even the yogi! In Stephen Mitchell's commentary to the Bhagavad Gita he says that this millenia-old tale (and yoga in general) "has nothing to teach. Everything essential that it points to - what we call wisdom or radiance or peace - is already present within us." So yoga is NOT some kind of witchcraft - we yogis cannot conjure something out of nothing. Satchidananda points out that "all knowledge is within you and you need not get it from outside." Basically, this means that we've all already got all this awesomeness within us. We just need yoga to unlock this potential. This also goes for the physical (asana) aspect. I've seen unfit novice yogis surprise themselves by getting into crow pose (bakasana) in their first class. For a long time I thought I never in my life would be able to perform revolved triangle (parivrtta trikonanasana). But, thanks to my trainer Heather, I got there! Satchidananda  gives the analogy that when we reflect on ourselves it's like seeing our inner self in a mirror. If our mind is unfocussed the mirror is dirty and we cannot see ourselves for who were are. When we meditate we clean the metaphorical mirror and see our true radiant selves. And when we leave our mats we see our friends for who they are and end up being happier, nicer people :)

So I'm kinda psyched about my yoga right now. Because of yoga I'm not half as shy as I was three years ago and I feel like this is really going to help me live my life and stop me being a lifelong wallflower. The practice has given me so much confidence and I'm really excited to show others how to unlock their true potential. Anyway, so I'm finally leaving the Midwest (albeit for less than a week!) for a vacation so maybe I'll have more interesting (and less heavy!) stuff to write about then :)