Breath and Pose

Breath and pose: 

of course yoga is more than mere exercise, and although most of us probably know this on a basic level, there might not be a recognition of just how deep this path of transformation truly is. Yoga is the path of change, subtle, without any conscious effort to be transformed. It really happens on it's own. That's really the key point here, that yoga most truly is an act of surrender, simply committing ourselves to breath and pose, risking our balance for the briefest sense of poise, as if the entire universe rose to the occasion of coming to our aide, holding us, gravity suspended for just an instant. 

we are transformed by the mystery of the pose. 

 and even the simplest asana has this magic. 

yogic psychology talks of the three gunas, attributes, basic qualities and tendencies that we seem to be born to, inherent in our very nature. Broadly speaking these are sattva, rajas, tamas - or purity, individual concern, and impurity. We are each a play of all of these qualities, they make up the fabric of the universe and have a role in the creation of a balanced life. Our yoga practice brings this to light, a psychological process of revealing the qualities that we possess, and how might fins ourselves unbalanced in our approach to life. We use the process of breath and pose to bring ourselves to center, a purifying effect that slowly favors sattva and yet allows for the balanced points of the other two gunas as well. 

we are transformed by breath and pose. 

without any effort to change at all. 

even one asana has this magic. 

~

Peace, Eric 

 Asana practice:

my asana practice is twice daily, an early morning session, before sunrise, gentle throughout, and it’s main purpose is to wake my body and give thanks for the coming day. It’s focused around sun salutation and a few key poses that will open my body’s energy channels, preparing for the day ahead.

my actual yoga practice begins with first moment of awakening, a short chant of Om, three times, vibrations reaching through the morning. It’s a prayer really, just one to show how grateful I am to be alive, waking up to another morning. This is followed by breathwork, mediation, and then my asana practice. These are separate events, yoga, but it’s worth making the distinction — yoga is the overall theme of life, it’s the art and practice of being alive, and everything fits into its practice. My asana sessions are an aspect of this overall theme, distinct, yet not the main point of yoga at all.

yoga is the practice of life.

afternoons are reserved for a longer asana session, devoted to cultivating light, energy, and a restful sense of awareness. There is motion, exertion, and then always a brief repose, my body working through it’s natural stress response of effort followed by relaxation. This is the hatha yoga of asanas, a valuable practice that guides my life.

late afternoon is my last meditation session and then a slow unwind towards evening. Whatever falls between these sessions is yoga too, a practice, navigating through life on the terms that each moment presents to me, not always arguing for my demands and preferences. That’s the wonderful thing about yoga, mistakes fit in seamlessly to the path, natural, and life shows that it’s self-correcting, always and immediately moving onward in a steady flow. My asana practice highlights this so clearly, how I so easily fall from any pose and yet still have the opportunity to simply try again.

there’s no need to be perfect.

yoga is simply practice.

it’s life.

~

Peace, Eric

Sarvangasana

 

Sarvangasana:

as difficult as halasana, the plow pose, has been for me, it seems somewhat surprising that sarvangasana would be a pose I feel quite comfortable in, holding it for whatever length of time I have set in mind with little issues at all. This is the shoulder-stand posture, often referred to as the queen of asanas because of its many benefits to the mind and body. It’s a wonderful inversion and allows me a new perspective of the world, a moment where my view is flipped towards my entire body reaching skyward.

a new perspective indeed.

for some reason I immediately took to this pose, my feet shooting towards the ceiling at first try right after I read the instructions. I wasn’t yet in my teens, but already there was an interest in yoga, and with a purchase of a book I began to practice poses that I learned. This would often last for weeks at a time before my curiosity would be drawn elsewhere, a new project would emerge and my imagination would be captivated by it. I would always return to yoga though, another long period of practice before the entire cycle would repeat itself once more. Finally, in my mid-twenties, there became a passion for yoga that’s barely wavered since. A life long journey had begun when my feet reached into the air with sarvangasana, a new perspective gained.

and my world has never been the same.

I love that halasana follows my stronger pose of shoulder-stand, that I’m immediately humbled and placed in an uncertain position. Even after all these years I’ve yet to gather any confidence in my attempts at plow pose, although honestly I favored those poses that played to my strengths and only glossed over those that challenged me. Or at least those poses that produced a subtle sense of fear that would only seem to grow larger through the time they were held. I know feel ready to work this fear, gently so, not confronting with a challenge to hold these postures, but to ease into their position, open myself to discovering what secrets they might offer.

it’s a way of rediscovering the mystery of the body.

sarvangasana provides me a certain energy that guides me through this fear, approaching the very next pose with a sense of confidence that allows me to explore the present limits of my mind and body, gently opening myself to the edge of this discomfort and then perhaps spending just a bit of time there. My perspective has been shifted from my time in sarvangasana, with fear no longer an issue to be avoided.

there’s something to be leaned here, something vital.

and I’m ready, finally, to discover what it is.

~

Peace, Eric

Halasana

 Halasana:

there are a few poses that have always been difficult for me to perform, most of these asanas, through diligent practice, I’ve been able to work through and reach a point where I am at least satisfied with my ability to hold them. A few poses, I have set aside, no longer including them in my practice, believing their benefits being less than the amount of work I wish to invest in them. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. The plow pose, Halasana has been one of those, although I’ve paid it a cursory use as a stretch, not being mindful of form, and quickly moving through it without commitment as a practice. Yet now I find myself drawn to it for that very reason, realizing that there’s been a certain amount of fear present for me here, a deep presence held through my next and spine that refuses to release me in this postures full expression.

and I’ve decided to work with this.

or maybe more truly,

I’ve been drawn to release this fear.

it seems strange to me that I’m able to perform Sarvangasana, should-stand, without fear or difficulty, even from my earliest days of yoga, almost immediately holding the pose with strength and confidence. Yet to lower my legs behind my neck from this position invokes a sense of unease, my spine locked in inflexibility that isn’t present in any other pose. I’m just unable to fully commit to it, at least not in its proper form, and being unsatisfied with this only feed into the anxiety and causes me to release holding it through to finish.

fear.

I’ve been afraid of working with halasana.

and this is absolutely fine, perfect really, as now it truly becomes a practice. I’m committed to working with this fear, not just through it, or seeking to conquer it in anyway. But to befriend it, seeking to know its presence in my body and listen to what’s been hidden here for all these many years. The practice of yoga, true practice, is one of patience, a slow process of discovering secrets of the body/mind.

I’m committed to this asana.

for now, halasana is my complete practice, everything else letting up to it as a helpful aid of focus and attention. I’m not seeking to master this pose, I’m not at all interested in perfection, but to only understand the secret that it holds, a wish to befriend the fear that’s present in my body and allow it to be expressed in a more meaningful way.

halasna is now my practice.

until I finally hear it’s message.

~

Peace, Eric

Alchemy of Writing

 

Alchemy of writing:

some mornings have a certain kind of energy that seems to prevent an easy settling down, more distractions presents, and my rhythm seem slightly off. There’s all kinds of things that call me from the page, none of which are even slightly important and yet they are just enough to momentarily keep me from the page.

it’s a natural part of writing.

there’s no real tricks here, no methods that I know of that will draw a writer back to the task at hand. It’s a certain kind of energy, different than most mornings, and all a writer can do is recognize its presence and work within the boundaries that if offers. What’s not required is effort, or at least an undue amout of stress to force some concentration. This will only drive inspiration further from the page, changing the energy from the nervousness of distraction to one of feeling blocked from our creative source.

what I do – is work with the energy that’s present.

without demands for any change.

content with what I have right now.

and everything changes completely on its own.

that’s the alchemy of writing, not believing that I have to dictate the right conditions for inspirations to be given, free of all distractions, but simply being willing to wait for things to change. It’s about working with the energy that’s present, and even a single word on the page begins the magic of transformation.

nothing needs to be different than it is.

everything is already changing, shifting, creating a different type of energy. So this is what I work with, these ever changing conditions…

the alchemy of writing.

words appearing…completely on their own.

~
Peace, Eric

Yoga is an Art From

Yoga is an art form: 

it's been a deep dive into yoga lately, even after decades of practice I find there's end to this depth, truly infinite in how it can be expressed and my only true goal is to continue its expression - fully committed to how it might be shown through every aspect of my life. 

yoga is an art form really, and life is the medium, more so, my body is a series of brushstrokes, lines, endlessly displayed through various postures. I'm working with energy, alignment, getting a pose just right for my own particular body and how it moves right now, giving great consideration to its limits, as well as the possibilities for a new display. 

my only true goal is creativity. 

working with the brushstrokes of my body. 

what I find is that the breath provides the steadiness for each body-line, that I am breathed into a posture and that it's held for however many breaths as needed for its potential to be shown. 

not a single breath more. 

a temporary line of body and form. 

yoga is an art form.

~

Peace, Eric 

Another Kind of Challenge

Another kind of challenge: 

much of my yoga practice is now centered around relaxation, postures that bring a deep rest to the body such as savasana (corpse pose) and balasana (child's pose) - the sequences of poses is designed for effort of a longer held asana, or a series of asanas, followed by some time spent in complete relaxation. It's quiet a change for me as much of my background is based on motion, strenuous activity, and even my previous yoga routine was based upon a physical effort all the way though. Really, it's another kind of challenge, one of least effort, similar to my practice of mantra meditation, where stress is reduced to a proper position of holding a pose and then completely letting go into whatever the breath and body then offers. It's a beautiful style of practice, classical Hatha Yoga, ancient. 

exactly what I need right now. 

what I've discovered is the deep grief my body has held for so long, an accumulation of sorrow, from my mother's long decline through Alzheimer's until her death, divorce, and then caring for my father as he passed away at home - years of stress stored through the fibers of my body, unexpressed even as I believed that I was grieving fully. It seems the body stores this kind of energy, knitted through muscle and all the way to bones and deeply into cells. Through this yoga practice my body is tensed through a particular asana and then allowed a chance to process the exertion, a counter balance, and so much is released through this period if relaxation. It's deeply restful, and yet also scary in a way. I know that my body is now able to release decades of stored emotion, freely expressing the scars brought by the sorrows of a lifetime. I'm not sure I'm always ready for what's just beneath the surface, the next layer that's released to be examined in the light of new awareness. 

it's another kind of challenge. 

and exactly what I need right now. 

~

Peace, Eric