Yoga homework
I was touched this morning by an email sent from my friend who just read my previous entry on the habit of silence. This friend has been “waking up early religiously for the past 2 weeks to practise” yoga but today met with a difficult practice session (Hope you don’t mind my quoting here for the sake of discussion, B, namaste):
“. . .however today was different. I couldn't do it. As I stepped into each pose, I had a feeling that I couldn't wait to get out of it and move into the next - The feeling was that of 'let's just get it over and done with'... sadly enough, I conceded defeat... my mind just wasn't there. It was whirling with thoughts , so many.. and still is.”
Most of us encounter this in yoga. When we are encouraged by the good feelings we get at the end of our sessions with our teacher and we are inspired to bring our practice home and integrate it into our lives. However, sooner or later, we come to a point when we are “stuck”. Yet, nothing is all good or bad. I believe that this is the very point where you have the opportunity to take your yoga practice one step further. This is where the breakthrough comes, when you are stuck. Take a moment to reflect:
First, be kind to yourself. We all have up days and down days. The same for our yoga practice sessions. This is normal. It is to be accepted because we can't change it. The key thing is to persist with our regular sessions. After a period of consistent practice, you will find that these oscillations in our enthusiasm for practise has very little to do with having a good consistent practice. This realisation helps us to see through to the very fibre of life itself, which is itself made up of highs and lows, ever full of changes. Come high, come low, we continue to practise, we continue to live with an even mind, objective expectations and a healthy balanced perspective. We become immune to the random nature of the mind, our mood always positive and buoyant, come what may.
Second, you need not concede defeat! You have won! The only bad practice is no practice. The fact that you practiced at all is victory over your everyday ingrained habits -- these are very hard to overcome! This is motivation enough to carry on with your practice. You will strengthen your resolve over time and your mind will become a close ally.
Third, in my own experience, this is where good teachers can come in really handy. They constantly give you new ideas to experiment with which enriches your home practice. While it is possible to sustain a home practice without attending classes, it makes for a stimulating home practice when you have someone skilled in yoga to nudge you towards areas outside your comfort zone, your preferences and habits. The “helplessness” of being in a yoga class with its own momentum can also help you to form a habit of staying focused with a practice session when your mind wants to be somewhere else.
Lastly, you are right, it is near impossible to practise when your “mind isn’t there”. The very definition of “yoga” is “union”, a union of mind and body, at the very least. If one partner isn’t there, it’s hard to tango. My friend’s email has the subject line: “I need to still the mind”. The encouraging thing here to understand is that the mind is already still. When the winds of your thoughts are not blowing, the lake of your mind is still as a mirror. So what we are after here is not so much to force an unnatural state on the mind but to facilitate a return to the natural state of the mind. This means that perhaps the harder we try to still the mind, the more thoughts (those thoughts that you want to still the mind) enter into the wild hurricane of our mind. So how? If the natural state of the mind is stillness, in our practice, we need to, in a sense “surrender” – let go of our rational thinking, our desires, our trying for a while, let the mind return to its natural state of clarity and rest. There are many ways to do this, the yoga practices themselves offer many methods. Befriending silence and forming the habit of silence is a method I wrote about in the previous entries on this blog. Meditation, is very effective and I wrote about that many times earlier. Find out about different ways of doing this and experiment through your own practice what works for you.
Overall, I am encouraged by B’s email. I am filled with hope when B said: “I will go home early tonight and find a silent spot”. The statement is so full of inner wisdom. That’s practising yoga in a nutshell: surrendering to the unity of mind and body.
May you have a good practice. May you be well and happy.
“. . .however today was different. I couldn't do it. As I stepped into each pose, I had a feeling that I couldn't wait to get out of it and move into the next - The feeling was that of 'let's just get it over and done with'... sadly enough, I conceded defeat... my mind just wasn't there. It was whirling with thoughts , so many.. and still is.”
Most of us encounter this in yoga. When we are encouraged by the good feelings we get at the end of our sessions with our teacher and we are inspired to bring our practice home and integrate it into our lives. However, sooner or later, we come to a point when we are “stuck”. Yet, nothing is all good or bad. I believe that this is the very point where you have the opportunity to take your yoga practice one step further. This is where the breakthrough comes, when you are stuck. Take a moment to reflect:
First, be kind to yourself. We all have up days and down days. The same for our yoga practice sessions. This is normal. It is to be accepted because we can't change it. The key thing is to persist with our regular sessions. After a period of consistent practice, you will find that these oscillations in our enthusiasm for practise has very little to do with having a good consistent practice. This realisation helps us to see through to the very fibre of life itself, which is itself made up of highs and lows, ever full of changes. Come high, come low, we continue to practise, we continue to live with an even mind, objective expectations and a healthy balanced perspective. We become immune to the random nature of the mind, our mood always positive and buoyant, come what may.
Second, you need not concede defeat! You have won! The only bad practice is no practice. The fact that you practiced at all is victory over your everyday ingrained habits -- these are very hard to overcome! This is motivation enough to carry on with your practice. You will strengthen your resolve over time and your mind will become a close ally.
Third, in my own experience, this is where good teachers can come in really handy. They constantly give you new ideas to experiment with which enriches your home practice. While it is possible to sustain a home practice without attending classes, it makes for a stimulating home practice when you have someone skilled in yoga to nudge you towards areas outside your comfort zone, your preferences and habits. The “helplessness” of being in a yoga class with its own momentum can also help you to form a habit of staying focused with a practice session when your mind wants to be somewhere else.
Lastly, you are right, it is near impossible to practise when your “mind isn’t there”. The very definition of “yoga” is “union”, a union of mind and body, at the very least. If one partner isn’t there, it’s hard to tango. My friend’s email has the subject line: “I need to still the mind”. The encouraging thing here to understand is that the mind is already still. When the winds of your thoughts are not blowing, the lake of your mind is still as a mirror. So what we are after here is not so much to force an unnatural state on the mind but to facilitate a return to the natural state of the mind. This means that perhaps the harder we try to still the mind, the more thoughts (those thoughts that you want to still the mind) enter into the wild hurricane of our mind. So how? If the natural state of the mind is stillness, in our practice, we need to, in a sense “surrender” – let go of our rational thinking, our desires, our trying for a while, let the mind return to its natural state of clarity and rest. There are many ways to do this, the yoga practices themselves offer many methods. Befriending silence and forming the habit of silence is a method I wrote about in the previous entries on this blog. Meditation, is very effective and I wrote about that many times earlier. Find out about different ways of doing this and experiment through your own practice what works for you.
Overall, I am encouraged by B’s email. I am filled with hope when B said: “I will go home early tonight and find a silent spot”. The statement is so full of inner wisdom. That’s practising yoga in a nutshell: surrendering to the unity of mind and body.
May you have a good practice. May you be well and happy.
