All is Yoga

So this post is some heavy-duty catch-up!

First time yogi! Masiha shared that his favorite pose was up-dog after his first taste of yoga because it felt really good. He made me think about what the postures are really meant to do for our bodies... While there are advanced postures that are more challenging, they are always meant to feel GOOD. If it feels awful to hold a posture, we won't come back (and at this point we've missed the correct alignment or proper breathing). However, if it were easy, we wouldn't come back either.

Sometimes the most inspiring practices are like the one Masiha shared with me. They are fresh and honest, almost child-like. In fact, children can be the most inspiring yogis of all. They laugh as they come to a roadblock, and laugh even harder when they fall.

Coming into the postures for the first time is disorienting and we recognize that the body is acclimating to something foreign. As we return to the mat, we feel like we have achieved knowledge, and we worry more about failure because falling means we have lost the knowledge we worked so hard to gain. The good news about this theory is that knowledge is it is based in past experience. Yoga is about the intelligence of the present. So when we rely on knowledge, we lose space where intelligence can inspire union. So falling can be the most important aspect of the yoga because we are finding a balance. An acupuncturist pointed out that we all have energy deficiencies, which means every day we fall out of balance, we live off balanced. So why would our body be the one thing we take so seriously when it can be a powerful metaphor to play with?

Finding the inner child can be rejuvenating. Maybe make a play-date out of it!