At the beginning of a Yoga class, the teacher will often ask us to check in with our body to see how we are feeling. Do we have an injury or point of tension that we need to take care of? This isn’t meant to be a glossed over or even rhetorical question, but rather an opportunity for us to take a moment to observe and then be honest about how we are feeling: physically in our body, but also energetically, mentally, emotionally.
As we begin to move into our practice, we take this information with us. Continuously fine tuning our movements, adjusting through flexing and softening to find the right space in the pose for us. Through this we further develop our sense of outer awareness, or proprioception, meaning how we sense the space around us through our body. The later certainly helping in staving off injuries. We the student, must take a certain level of responsibility here, in particular if we are not listening to the cues of our teacher and attempting to push ourselves into poses we simply shouldn’t be in. The easiest way to know if this is happening is to come back to our breath. If it is smooth and steady the pose is okay, if it is laboured or shallow, or if we are holding our breath, it is too intense. We must constantly re-calibrate, quiet our ego and be honest with our self for how the pose feels. Trusting in the process.
But it is not just outer awareness we develop through our yoga practice. What might be even more impactful is the inner awareness we learn, though often this happens much more slowly and subtly. It is here that we begin to notice our thoughts, or emotions as they begin to rise up, either through the postures themselves or in finding the stillness in between. Does a certain movement bring something up from the past, does it make us feel a certain way, do we want to close up, or do we suddenly want to expand. This is where the journey of Yoga and our experience within our Yoga practice really begins to deepen. This is where the shifts begin. Within Yoga philosophy and the eight-limbed path of yoga sits ethical guidelines known as the yamas and niyamas. The word yama meaning restraint. The first two niyamas are known as ahimsa and satya, or non-violence and truthfulness. They both work closely together and can explored both on and off our yoga mat.
The descriptions above detail how we interweave these concepts into our physical yoga practice, but what about how we take this out into the world? Satya asks for the truth to always come from our heart first. In this way, we strive to live from our heart and live our truth. Are we living the life we want? What is our truth? Do we hide behind a mask of what we think our friends or family want to see? Do we let the voice take over that says we aren’t good enough, smart enough etc… this is also where we see the close link between non-violence or Ahimsa: is it kind? Is it good? When we ask these deep questions and really listen to the whispers of our heart the magic of yoga begins to dawn. This is where most people’s yoga journey ends. The truth can be eye opening and maybe even scary, but what lies on the other side might be better than we could have ever imagined, and yoga dares us to try.
