A Movement of Life
Greetings Earth Creature (:
I hope this week has dropped you right into the center of your being. I hope you've have moments of remembering why you're here. Sending ease and grace to ya as we navigate the journey. I am so very grateful to be in community with you.
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When we are practicing yoga we have the opportunity to put our state of awareness is motion. Yoga is a life practice. Even vinyasa, a "breath to movement" practice, is ultimately stating no physical/external movement should be done without the "breath" or "life force energy". The movement stems from honoring and understanding life - otherwise what is it coming from?
For a long time, I forced my body into challenging postures that were more performative than reverent. I saw images of fancy asanas in books and because of my flexibility threw myself into them thinking I had mastered it all. All I was really doing was projecting the energy of distortion and patterning of seeking validation onto my body. In essence, the opposite of honoring life, which is and happens in the body. If we are just throwing the body through space from our own unhealthy patterning, what we are practicing is our unhealthy patterning - not yoga.
Pattabhi Jois said, "Yoga is an internal practice. The rest is just circus." If my practice isn't for anybody but me, am I practicing what I want to be practicing? The beauty of a mind, body, spirit practice is we are moving from the awareness that we are the sum of all of our parts and we are also a piece of the whole. It's reassuring to me that I know I can move my life through my practice, not just move my leg. It's reassuring to me to know that I can remember the connection to all of life through my practice, not just do 20 push-ups and call it a day.
The practice will meet and expand us at the depth we know ourselves to be. If awareness is primarily at the level of body identification, it will be a primarily body practice. If awareness is at mental, emotional, spiritual aspects of Self that is funneled through the practice as well. Our practice is ultimately a mirror of how we move through life. What are my habits that get projected onto my body? Where do I get impatient? Where do I grip instead of exhale? Where am I choosing comfort over evolution? It can be a mirror to break down years of unhealthy patterning on every level if we allow it to. We can break down the paradigm of "rushing" or "doing more" or "self punishing" or "insert the blank" by how we move ourselves in the practice. And the beautiful thing is is that it is a practice. We are practicing a new way of being. Yoga is a system devoted to process not goal. It's an invitation to ask Self where, what, and why am I moving? Also, what am I moving from in practice and in life which mirror each other? Do I need to redirect the ship?
We cultivate the capacity to be honest with ourselves in our practice. The teacher said "take 10 breaths", am I actually taking 10 breaths or am I just practicing "checking out and expecting something to happen"? The teacher said, "feel the texture of the mat underneath your feet" am I feeling that/truly being with it or just practicing "waiting for the next chaturanga". We could be practicing "waiting for the next chaturanga dynamic" our whole life which leaves us deprived of our own presence.
I know my practice is growing stronger because my life is more in harmony. I know my practice is growing stronger because I am more patient and kind than I used to be. I know my practice is stronger because I am able to move more slowly now. I know my practice is stronger because I take my self less seriously than I used to. I know my practice is stronger because I am an entirely different human that I used to be because of it. It all depends on what one wants it to be. A handstand gold star or an intentional movement of life energy?
I say all this having spent years projecting patterning, limiting beliefs, and habits that don't serve me onto the practice. I say this having spent years doing the handstand and all the chaturangas thinking that was all there was to the journey. I spent years in a state of stasis thinking I was practicing "yoga" when I was just practicing residual dynamics of force and control. But at some point I knew I needed to start to practice something different in order to honor Self and all of life an extension of it. Now I ask, am I honoring life by how I am moving in every way?
The physical body is beautiful because of it's tangibility - we can see it and feel it as dense matter. But we are so so much more than a body. Body is the vessel for the soul, the spirit, and our lived experience. Are we moving through life in a way that honors that or not? The yoga practice has the potential to allow us to remember the truth of who we are and move from that place if we let it take its' roots in us. The sacredness is reclaimed when I honor for my Self that how I show up in presence in a child's pose matters. If I show up every practice in full presence, I now know, from direct experience, I will be more present and awake to my life.
Just to be clear, I have nothing against handstands or chaturangas (I love/practice these all the time to understand my Self in them!) - this is more just an inquiry on what we are playing through the practice as we move ourselves through time and space. It's an invitation that I ask my Self every day, "can I make it more conscious? can I be a bit more here for it all?" Knowing that the being "here for it all" is really what we often long for the most. So let's practice it!
Thank you for reading!
Here's to being here (:
Bree
RECOMMENDATIONS
Read
“Our culture is all about hard work and control but zilch about letting go and following the lead of a higher power.”
Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silver
Listen
I've been listening to Tara Brach talks for about 10 years now and they've been and still are such a source of refuge for my seeking soul.
Watch
I'm big into the mental sovereignty game. How can I free my mind? These mind explained episodes were useful in explaining how the whole thing works.
Write
How am I?
What's moving through me currently physically, mentally, energetically, emotionally, and spiritually currently?
Based on this, how might I need to care for my Self? Or what practices/tools might be useful at this time?
What am I currently trying to call forward?
What am I currently releasing?
How do what I'm calling forward and what I'm releasing intersect?