Aside from the physical/physiological of breathing, stretching, balancing or strengthening, I realized that if we can bring these five qualities to our postures, we are going to do ourselves a great service.
I was reading the sutras, and 1:20 discussed becoming more spiritual and five qualities to do so.
While everyone can tweak "spiritual" to be either religious or more authentic, the qualities remain the same.
1. Right Direction, or focus of intention.
- know why you are practicing the posture and why it matters. If you are unsure or if the posture is "easy" for you, then what are you getting out of it? How can you get something out of it so that you can create more intention. If it is challenging, make it about the process.
2. Faith, or caring
- Believe in yourself and have respect for the posture. Even an adapted posture or "westernized or tweaked" posture has a history of approximately 5,000 years. It is very probable that whatever struggle or feeling of challenge or joy that you have in a posture has been experienced by someone generations ago, who spoke a different language and saw the world through very different eyes. However, have faith in your intention or direction and also in the actual focus of the posture. It was developed for a reason.
3. Remembrance, or authenticity
- It is easy to forget alignment, forget to breath and yes, forget your intention or the purpose of yoga as a whole. It's easy to get caught up in the details or topical. It's also easy to forget that one major aspect of yoga is a healing process of emotion and mind. Try to remember/recall in each position what you feel or what it reminds you of, or just be aware of what pops into your mind. Be authentic to the entire package of who you are, not only the moment of physical but every other layer that is trying to surface in that posture (if) it happens. Often in the course of one class, if you listen to your body, you'll hear all kinds of memories surfacing for you to embrace, come to terms with or face for a moment to shelf when ready.
4. Absorption, or body/mind/spirit intelligence.
- To each posture, even if it is cobra and we think of it as a transition only and don't give it much thought, try to find the full circle blend that helps that posture become more meaningful and, that you build upon. So, if you look back, remember how maybe warrior was just about standing in a knee bend and you were only focused on holding that position; then later in time, that position became more to you with a feeling of external energy or vitality coming inward to you as you increased your alignment and your feelings of empowerment surfaced more. Every position is going to grow like this more and more, a result of total absorption. Keep that alive and keep building upon what you know. It isn't all going to be directed by teachers but by self awareness also, and listening to yourself.
5. Illumination, or being aware
- It's a great moment when you are in a posture, release and feel an 'ahhhh" that it was beyond just physical but you felt the above qualities take hold. This is illumination. You are more aware, and more enlightened not only in the posture but now the posture has brought something to your life. The above qualities together, have taught you that what is happening in your life is reflected on the mat. What is happening on your mat, can be also, taken into your life.
These five qualities and that focus of authenticity or spirituality, bringing you a gift of inner peace, are extremely important to remember in yoga. I do see people who want to lose weight or get stronger but the reality is, none of the true root issues in our lives will ever really be fixed by external answers long term, so be it losing weight, or ridding oneself of a tight back, it all starts deeper inside.
I used to be a personal trainer and also certified in Pilates, yada yada.. and yes, you can count calories and you can figure out how long to work out at a gym and yes, you can lose weight. However, when you do that, although enjoyable to many, it is a case of needing to continue that because it is going to be only as successful as you keep that habit. When I worked with advocacy and healing emotions, I learned that you can fight someone all you want to prove you are right or, you can pray all you want to forgive, and you may win a court case and you may feel a sense of peace while praying but, until you layer this deeply inside, it's just another short term fix.
The only way you create long term changes is true deeper states of change and none of those have to do with where you pray, winning a case or running on a treadmill. All of these are important; I am not negating them, just encouraging you (and I) to apply the above qualities to our mat, and to our actions in life.
I was reading the sutras, and 1:20 discussed becoming more spiritual and five qualities to do so.
While everyone can tweak "spiritual" to be either religious or more authentic, the qualities remain the same.
1. Right Direction, or focus of intention.
- know why you are practicing the posture and why it matters. If you are unsure or if the posture is "easy" for you, then what are you getting out of it? How can you get something out of it so that you can create more intention. If it is challenging, make it about the process.
2. Faith, or caring
- Believe in yourself and have respect for the posture. Even an adapted posture or "westernized or tweaked" posture has a history of approximately 5,000 years. It is very probable that whatever struggle or feeling of challenge or joy that you have in a posture has been experienced by someone generations ago, who spoke a different language and saw the world through very different eyes. However, have faith in your intention or direction and also in the actual focus of the posture. It was developed for a reason.
3. Remembrance, or authenticity
- It is easy to forget alignment, forget to breath and yes, forget your intention or the purpose of yoga as a whole. It's easy to get caught up in the details or topical. It's also easy to forget that one major aspect of yoga is a healing process of emotion and mind. Try to remember/recall in each position what you feel or what it reminds you of, or just be aware of what pops into your mind. Be authentic to the entire package of who you are, not only the moment of physical but every other layer that is trying to surface in that posture (if) it happens. Often in the course of one class, if you listen to your body, you'll hear all kinds of memories surfacing for you to embrace, come to terms with or face for a moment to shelf when ready.
4. Absorption, or body/mind/spirit intelligence.
- To each posture, even if it is cobra and we think of it as a transition only and don't give it much thought, try to find the full circle blend that helps that posture become more meaningful and, that you build upon. So, if you look back, remember how maybe warrior was just about standing in a knee bend and you were only focused on holding that position; then later in time, that position became more to you with a feeling of external energy or vitality coming inward to you as you increased your alignment and your feelings of empowerment surfaced more. Every position is going to grow like this more and more, a result of total absorption. Keep that alive and keep building upon what you know. It isn't all going to be directed by teachers but by self awareness also, and listening to yourself.
5. Illumination, or being aware
- It's a great moment when you are in a posture, release and feel an 'ahhhh" that it was beyond just physical but you felt the above qualities take hold. This is illumination. You are more aware, and more enlightened not only in the posture but now the posture has brought something to your life. The above qualities together, have taught you that what is happening in your life is reflected on the mat. What is happening on your mat, can be also, taken into your life.
These five qualities and that focus of authenticity or spirituality, bringing you a gift of inner peace, are extremely important to remember in yoga. I do see people who want to lose weight or get stronger but the reality is, none of the true root issues in our lives will ever really be fixed by external answers long term, so be it losing weight, or ridding oneself of a tight back, it all starts deeper inside.
I used to be a personal trainer and also certified in Pilates, yada yada.. and yes, you can count calories and you can figure out how long to work out at a gym and yes, you can lose weight. However, when you do that, although enjoyable to many, it is a case of needing to continue that because it is going to be only as successful as you keep that habit. When I worked with advocacy and healing emotions, I learned that you can fight someone all you want to prove you are right or, you can pray all you want to forgive, and you may win a court case and you may feel a sense of peace while praying but, until you layer this deeply inside, it's just another short term fix.
The only way you create long term changes is true deeper states of change and none of those have to do with where you pray, winning a case or running on a treadmill. All of these are important; I am not negating them, just encouraging you (and I) to apply the above qualities to our mat, and to our actions in life.
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