Did you think Yoga was about checking out of your life?
It might look like Yogis are checked out when deep in a posture, in a pose, in our breath work but that’s not true.
The kind of stillness and stability you need to meditate and be absorbed in the object of your meditation comes from a serious amount of active practices. Not to mention disciplined strategic work.
Work that fortifies the body and purifies the mind.
Only then might it be possible to break down some self-created walls and become explorers of our inner landscapes. Things like higher-awareness, intuition, and the inner strength that can help us deal with life’s challenges.
Be ready for life!
The Goal of Yoga.
The goal of Yoga is not to check out, it’s to check in. We can’t do that work without moving beyond the activity of the physical body, and the resistance of the constructed mind.
Trouble is, most of us are way more comfortable staying in the activity of the external world. Moving from pose to pose in ways that keep us distracted from doing this deeper work and ultimately disconnected from what we are actually capable of!
Trust me. Most of us can’t sit (or stand still) for toffee. And most of us will do anything to move on to the next activity, rather than do the work that is necessary to cultivate stillness and steadiness.
“I Can’t Meditate”
You see it all the time. People skipping savasana (basically involves lying still on your back and staying in awareness). People also telling themselves – ‘they can’t meditate’.
Poppy cock! – it’s just hard and some of us are not willing to start picking up the baby weights and build the strength and discipline it takes. (And after all, no one gets to admire my mental strength – so if I can’t put it on the ‘gram’ – why bother?
Anyways..peace! All I’m saying is no amount of vinyasa alone can give you access to your deeper sense of self… it’s only in stillness and steadiness that we can realistically ask the question: Who am I? And expect any wisdom that’s not clouded by our physical and mental fluctuations, to emerge from that space.
Yoga as Self Study
At the studio this month we are talking about Self study as a key component of yoga practice.
It’s the second aspect of Kriya Yoga (The Yoga of Action offered by Patanjaii in the Yoga Sutra) and is one of the tools to move us into momentum.
Momentum to…
- keep us going on our yoga journey – and into remembrance of the Self.
- keep us going when the find those uncomfortable moments of silence. Where we have to face what needs to be faced if we want to grow into our most vibrant, fulfilled self.
- keep going and create the space and stillness to do this deep work.
- keep going so we can better understand our acquired conditioning, our assumed patterns of behaviour and tendencies and work to move beyond them.
- keep going when it’s hard, because we will want to quit – the mind is petulant and pesky after all!
We can self study as we practice asana, we can self study in our meditation practice, we can self study when we journal.
Lest we forget who we are! Take action. Practice.
Did this speak to you? Come and join us in our off social, social and educational platform – the YL APP, where you can find more of this kind of conversation, or come and practice with us at our studio at
Unit 5 Nene Court, The Embankment, Wellingborough.
We’d love to get to know you as you get to know your Self! 😉
