Inspired by a conversation with a friend, one whom I regard as a top medical professional and who keeps her finger on the pulse and always working from a place of compassion, I realized that if they didn’t have straight-forward answers, one probably doesn’t exist. Rats. I was hoping for that golden nugget of info to provide a more solid sense of direction and answers to my questions. You know, the same questions so many of us are having: Is it safe to re-open? Will people show up to the business if I do? Will I be at great risk? Will people have to wear a mask during a yoga class? Should I get tested? If yes, how often? What does this all mean? What is the meaning of life?
Okay, well maybe not that last question, but I recognize that without easy answers our stress levels will likely continue to rise.
So, as I often do when faced with difficulty, I turn to my practice. This week I have been teaching about finding ease within the moment, even if we don’t have easy answers by looking for the sweet spot of experience in both the physical and meditative parts of our practice. Looking to the Sutras of Patanjali, 2:46 seems the perfect aphorism to place our focus. Sthira Sukham Asanam which according to T.K.V Desikachar means: “Asana must have the dual qualities of alertness and relaxation. When postures are properly practiced there must be an alertness without tension and relaxation without dullness or heaviness.” In other words, a balance of tension exists between trying too hard or not hard enough.
For many of us, this concept of not trying too hard is quite foreign. It wasn’t until I delved in the practice of yoga that it was suggested that I “do less and back off from trying so hard…” It had been deeply ingrained in me that in order to achieve “results” I needed to tolerate some level of discomfort and suffering. So the idea of finding ease when things are difficult is something I’ve been trying to learn.
We can get to know this notion through our physical practice. If I harken back to my early physical education studies, we learned about gross motor movement. For example,
when we first learn downward facing dog in yoga, we are taught to have our hips and hands about shoulder-width, pressing into the hands as we lift our knees from the earth and our tail toward the sky, ending up in a “V” like shape. Yep…the basic mechanics of how to create a shape with the body to resemble the desired pose. Over time and with consistent practice, we refine the pose and our sensations associated with it. We begin to move toward fine motor skills, where a small adjustment of the position of the mound of our index finger, or slight outward turning of our heels alters the experience. We can feel the subtleties that take us more deeply into the language of our body and notice how the mind and breath are reacting. We learn to adjust our position in order to find the sweet place between how much effort is needed and where we can let go of striving to make it different or “better”.
I’ve been encouraging students this past week to embody the energy of Goldilocks (not the bit about her breaking into the bears’ house and messing with their stuff) but around finding “just right”. If your proverbial Papa Bear’s bed is too hard or Baby Bear’s bed too soft, fine-tune your experience toward Mama Bear’s bed. How that translates is paying attention to your experience and inviting both sense of ease and applying the “just right” amount of effort.
On a final note, also notice that when we ask questions we turn outside of ourselves. Take some time to get quiet and turn into yourself and ask, “What is it that I’m needing?” You might be surprised that the easiest answer is laying within.
