It Never Ends

This past week I got together with two men I have known since we moved to the desert in 1999.  We met through the tennis club we had joined and I eventually did some personal training with one of them. Joe, 97, is my former client and Burt, 91, had just stepped off the tennis court when I saw them. We greeted each other like long-lost friends. These two men, along with a few other nonagenarians I've had the privilege of working with and getting to know, have taught me so much about what it means to live a connected and purposeful life and they have found a way to still do many of the things that bring them joy.

My thought of the week is how the practice of yoga never ends. We never get to be so good at yoga that we no longer need to do it. I don't think the day arrives when we realize we know all there is to know and then move onto our next challenge of crocheting or learning to play the piano. That's the good news. And that is also the not so good news! The question is how do we continue to stay motivated in our practice both on and off the mat, forever?

Reflect back to the time that you first were drawn to yoga. For me, I came to the practice out of curiosity. It was a short-course offered at The University of Melbourne and it was hugely popular. I had to go see what all the fuss was about and enjoyed it, but wouldn't say that I got hooked by the practice until a few years later when I started to learn about the underlying wisdom and philosophy. THAT is what I had been seeking, the deepening of my connection to self, to self-love, and to have a wide angle lens view of how I fit within the greater scheme of the universe. The physical practice was great, but it wasn't a new experience for me as I had been engaged physically for most of my athletic life. It was the unfolding of a deeper sense that I had been seeking, although I couldn't actually articulate it at the time.

Much of what I continue to love about the practice is its adaptability. Whatever hooked us initially will likely have changed or will change as we get older. Our circumstances shift as do our ever-changing needs. At times, we seek a truly engaging physical practice, exploring the edges of how we are in the moment, building heat in the body, moving in the direction of poses that challenge our strength, flexibility, and balance. Other times we need to find stillness, solitude, and quiet so we may gravitate more toward a restorative practice, mantra repetition and meditation. And at other times, we crave to be challenged intellectually and philosophically so we can turn to the many sacred texts such as the Sutras of Patanjali, the Bhagavad Gita, or any other such book from the many wisdom traditions. We can seek what we need from the practice to support where we are in the current situation of our lives. We adapt the practice to us, not the other way around.

In the Sutra of Patanjali, 1.14 speaks to the idea of what a committed practice is. One translation from Swami Jnaneshvara states:

When that practice is done for a long time, without a break, and with sincere devotion, then the practice becomes a firmly rooted, stable and solid foundation.

Alice A. Bailey's take on it:

When the object, to be gained is sufficiently valued, and the effort towards its attainment are persistently followed without intermission, then steadiness of the mind (restraint of the vrittis) is secured.

My take on the translations is that when we recognize how the practice of yoga supports us, it is then up to us to create a disciplined and enthusiastic approach to doing it. Part of that is to recognize what we need through the fluctuations of our lives as well as how to engage it. Support comes from teachers who point us in the right direction and a community that understands the process. 

I hold such gratitude from witnessing those, such as Joe and Burt, who have found a way to live long and fulfilling lives. They may not be active in a yoga practice but they have paid attention to what supports them and have stayed engaged throughout the process. Everyone has something to teach us and it's up to us to filter through it and put into action what we need. The Sutras say this is part of calming the mind chatter and I believe it to be true.

Enjoy the journey!