I was teaching a class this past week, a story popped into my head about scuba
diving. I asked if anyone in the class was a diver, to which I got a silent
response…no, nobody. Not too surprising considering we live in the desert
with the nearest ocean being two hours away. What made me think about scuba
diving as it relates to yoga, was moving from the gross to the subtle, from the
most obvious big thing to the barely-there sign.
When I first began
diving, my initial thought as I was about to be jumping into the ocean was, “I
wonder if a shark, who hasn’t yet found lunch, is waiting for me to splash on
in”. I’d jump in with a deeply held breath and scout out my aquatic
environment, quickly doing double check that all was okay. As a novice diver, I
would notice the big stuff…large bits of kelp, fish and patterns on the
seabed. But as I became more comfortable over many dives, I started to look at
the smaller stuff. I’d take in the textural variations of coral and plant life
seeking out who was living in the small crevices and swaying with the current.
I found myself looking around for jaws less and less and, if I did see a shark,
it didn’t send me flying to the surface (with an important decompression stop on
the way, of course!).
The experience of scuba diving has so many
parallels to our yoga experience. When we first step onto the mat, our focus is
drawn to getting into poses…right foot here, left foot there, look up/down,
arm extended, breathe easy and so on. But the more time we spend on the mat,
the more we are able to look at the subtle elements that can make such a huge
impact on our practice.
Have you ever had the experience where you move
your weight into a different part of your foot and the pose you’re in completely
comes to life? Or you notice the pressure change within your abdomen as your
head moves lower than your heart and your breathing alters?
Instead of
looking for the big “ta-da” of what a pose looks like, we evolve in our practice
to get a sense of what the pose feels like. In a way, we become more
comfortable (even if it’s challenging) with the gross elements and are therefore
able to enjoy the sweetness of subtlety.
The beauty of the whole thing
is that it all co-exists within the same experience. Just as the tiny seahorse
hangs out with the Great White. One big happy family enjoying the ebb and
flow, both above and below the surface.
