I recently had a conversation with a friend who was experiencing massive changes in all of life's arenas: business, where she lived and relationships. She was expressing feelings of agitation and frustration at not having the answers and being unable to see beyond the current moment. The words of my teacher, Judith Hanson Lasater, rang loudly in my ears, "If you're confused, be the best-confused person you can be...". I have heard this from Judith several times and have come to learn to be with whatever is going on in our lives. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago about feeling incredibly sad at our local tragedy of two police officers being murdered, I knew that I needed to let myself feel the deep sadness without altering, pushing away or wishing I felt different. And with all emotions they'll change, so instead of becoming attached to them we allow them to flow through us, shifting the energy and being fully present with what's actually happening rather than what we think "should" be happening.
Being with what is, is also part of our physical practice of yoga. This past week, I've been referring to one of the yoga sutras within the text penned by Patanjali 2:48. The sutras were written some 2000 years ago and of the 196 succinct aphorisms, only three pertain to the physical practice of yoga or "asana". If the sutras were written by a westerner today, it would probably be 193 of them focused on the physical and only three on the philosophical approach to the practice! From my perspective, I think it's important to keep feeding the original teachings into the modern class as so much of it is relevant.
This sutra is Sthira Sukham Asanam, which can be translated as"Postures should be steady and comfortable" or "Posture is that which is firm and pleasant". So as we approach all physical postures, we are seeking a balance between the effort we apply to the posture and yet at the same time, seek to have a sense of ease no matter what posture we're practicing. In our culture, we are programmed to "push hard and find our edge" over and over again. What this sutra is saying is to be firm, to find the edge and then back away just a bit...that's the sukham or the ease that is present in all postures.
About 25 years ago, when I first was practicing yoga I knew nothing of these concepts. I was in a class at Melbourne University with my first teacher, Murray, and practicing Warrior Two (Virabhadrasana II), which is a strong standing pose. Murray came over to me and asked me to "stay just as you are" and then called the entire class over to where I was practicing. He asked the class to "look at my pose, then to look at my face. This is what we're trying to do, he said. You can see that her face is relaxed." Without knowing it or trying to be a particular way, I was exhibiting Sthira Sukham Asanam, the beautiful balance between effort and ease. I was immersed in the practice of yoga--that of union.
My thought of the week is to focus on the balance between our exerted effort and what we can surrender in the process. If you want to see a great example of much effort with little ease, spend some time watching people weight lifting at your local gym and watch their faces as they move. When you are in your practice, no matter what type of pose you're doing, can you sense and invite ease into it? A couple of ways to know if ease is present is to be able to easily find your breath and to notice if you're in pain. It's a way of deepening the connection to our own experience and it brings us sharply into the moment.
So why not try it on this week...as you exert yourself, relax and let what needs to be tense be tense and what doesn't...let it go!
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