Hi! My name is Ramya Iyengar, and I am a yoga professional and software engineer. You are receiving this email because we have interacted in the past in the context of Yoga. If you don’t want to receive the email, please feel free to unsubscribe. I would hate to see you go though.
Hello Everyone,
Wish you all a very Happy New Year!
COVID-19 has forced the whole world to slow down. It has made us pause, rethink and re-imagine new ways to continue our lives.
And this slowing down has been extremely uncomfortable.
I can talk about myself.
The lack of in-person engagements have shown me how distracted my mind can get with non-stop sensory activity. My mind seems to be bombarded with non-stop engagement with the virtual world. I realize that I have to put in more efforts to maintain my focus on the digital medium.
Thanks to COVID-19, Yoga is far more accessible than ever before. With this change and the paradoxical urgency to slow down, it has become all the more important to bridge gaps in our understanding of Yoga.
Our understanding of Yoga is caught up at two extremes.
On one end, we think Yoga means yet another physical exercise for wellness.
And on the other end, we think Yoga is only for those monks who have renounced everything and are seeking enlightenment. We assume it to be a far fetched goal that is beyond our grasp.
Result?
We either reduce Yoga to some complicated postures or we set out to tame our minds, by exploring all kinds of esoteric practices and meditation techniques.
Our understanding of Yoga is fundamentally flawed if we fall back on either side of the spectrum and see one exclusive of the other.
When I consider what I have learnt from my teachers and my own practice, it is clear that it is impossible to will our mind to rest, without working adequately with the body. And it is impossible to feel rested in the body without calming down our active mind.
Sounds like a chicken and egg problem. Isn’t it?
The way out of this paradox is simple.
Yoga looks at the body and the mind as not two separate things, but as a single unit.
Body exists in the field of the mind and our mind exists in our body.
Body is gross, the mind is subtle. All tools of Yoga require us to engage with them as a single unit.
And this engagement is possible only if we slow down. That is, both literally and metaphorically.
This gives Yoga its meditative and a quieting core.
Slowing down is drawing one’s mind inward and being present to what is happening inside oneself. This brings lightness in the body. It helps us operate from a higher level of awareness in our daily activities.
This brings a deep sense of contentment.
All practitioners of Yoga who commit to a regular personal practice invariably experience a shift in their sense of well-being. This parameter is subjective, it cannot be scientifically measured because it is beyond the body, beyond physiology.
When one approaches a Yoga Practice that is stripped from its core, one still receives all accessorial benefits but it becomes difficult to stay committed.
Why?
It becomes yet another activity that one is trying to fit into their busy lives. There is no deeper connect, no reverence and curiosity towards the practice.
If we approach Yoga with the right understanding, the motivation to practice and the experience of this journey becomes fulfilling.
Truth be told, not everyone wants to slow down - a primary reason for people to either resist Yoga or quit practice midway, or reduce this holistic framework to the physical dimension.
That’s OK. Let us start wherever we are, but understand that what we want out of the practice is not all that Yoga is about.
For those of us, who are open to this idea - the key tool that Yoga offers to slow down is by focusing on our breath.
Most of us start our Yoga practice with Asana.
Asana cannot be called Asana unless there is a continuous attempt, throughout the practice, to engage every single movement of your body with the movement of your breath.
No wonder why the Yoga texts call Asana as a meditation on the body.
And when you try to keep your mind engaged in your breath in this manner, you will realize that an Asana Practice can never be done as a fast paced work out, because a workout is the last thing you would want to do to slow down.
Trying to practise Asana as a work out is as futile as attempting to walk upstream in an escalator that is coming down.
In my experience, when I keep this meditative and quieting core of Yoga alive in my practice, Asana becomes a graceful, conscious dance of the mind, breath and the body.
What does it take to experience an Asana the way it is designed to be? What does it take to hold this understanding of Yoga and bring it alive in our daily practice?
Thanks and Regards,
Ramya