Transcendence from the Mat

Sthira sukham asanam - Steadiness and ease in your practice

Yoga means to yoke, or union. Yoga is the connection of all things. What shows up on your yoga mat transcends to your life. I have never really loved backbends (i.e. heart openers) like I love arm balances, maybe you have noticed from my Instagram posts. I have always craved a more yang, power practice than any sort of slow or calming yin practice. I love to focus on strength and power, rather than flexibility and malleability. For some reason, whether I was born with it or acquired it later, I am more connected to strength and willpower than to being soft and surrendering.

Additionally, for me it takes time to open up the front line of my body, and deep backbends were never just easy for me. I have always somewhat dreaded the idea of taking time to slowly open up my hip flexors, my thoracic spine (the part connected to your rib cage), or splits, opening up my hamstrings. This is exactly why I both dread them and need them in my practice. It turns out having too much power and strength in your practice without taking the time to let go and stretch results in dis-ease, or an imbalance, hence why my right wrist has been hurting.

So for months now, since being pregnant and having Lani-Lu, I have made a point to focus on my heart openers (i.e. backbends), counteracting the year of crouching forward (flexing my spine) to carry and protect her. I have forced myself to slow down and take the time to breathe and stretch the strong areas of my body. By allowing myself to slow down, I have seen dramatic changes in my backbend and splits practice.

The beauty in the physical practice, or asana, is that what happens on your mat directly translates to your life, just waiting for you to uncover it. Throughout my life, I have been Type A, insatiable, always wanting more, the next thing, to conquer and achieve it. This likely was the cause of me developing a chronic stomach illness, gastroparesis, amongst other injuries (dis-ease) to my physical body. This directly relates to my over stimulation of my third chakra, my willpower and drive, and to my under stimulation of my fourth chakra, or heart chakra, inhibiting my commitment to one task and the nurturing attentiveness towards that goal. Also my affinity towards a rajasic, or airy, chaotic mental nature, interrupting my sattvic, or calm and blissful relaxed inherent state.

I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone here. Currently our culture is of a go-go-go nature, and we tend to want more and more, always connected by our fingertips to every answer, service or product we could ever desire. This is why I am taking the time to practice heart openers and hamstring openers. This is why I am taking the time to slow down and breathe, focusing on one task or posture, rather than flowing on and on into the next. I love my drive and insatiability, but my practice is telling me to balance it out with some more openness and attention to the present moment.  I’m excited to see how my practice and life changes with a greater focus on relaxing and letting go, rather than forcing and holding on.