Essential Reminders (in Yoga and Life)
Also, what else you might want to know about Yoga as an art, science and psychology.
I am inspired by this podcast:
The following is my “homework” from Jason Crandell and Andrea Ferretti to “Come up with my own essentials to teach beginners.” I borrowed a few of theirs and added my own commentary. Thank you Jason and Andrea for the invitation to consider what else might be useful. Take a listen to their podcast if you’re inspired too.
Psst! These are not just for beginnings but helpful reminders for all.
#1: There’s more to Yoga than the postures. “Yoga” is a word in Saṃskṛta that means “to attach,” “to join,” “to harness,” or “to yoke.” Yoga means union of two (or more) elements. Yoga is, essentially, relationship. It’s a big word that has meant many different things throughout time, including “putting on amour,” “secret agent,” and “a combination of stars.”
What I mean when I use the word Yoga, is that it is one facet in a multi-faceted approach to relationship with Self and relationship with The Holy. It is a path for self-discovery and self-realization. Yoga is one way to engage with your “Soul Work” to use a term from Stephen Jenkinson. It’s important to note that the context of yoga, as I have learned it from my teachers, is that each person who approaches yoga, in fact each person on planet earth, is born whole, complete and perfect already.
The foundation of Yoga, in my understanding, is that each human has organic innocence and intrinsic dignity as their inheritance at birth. It’s what we do with what we’ve been given that determines how we live our lives and how we engage with the world in which we life and subsequently how we walk the path with or without Yoga.
I’d like to bring your attention to Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra, which are not dogmatic doctrine but aphorisms that need to be verified (over and over again) by the individual seeker. This text is a collection of threads of wisdom compiled by the sage Patañjali around 500 B.C.E. (There’s much that can be said about this sage and who this person was, mythical, real etc. but what I know is that the Yoga Sūtra and the discipline/practice of Yoga cannot be separated.)
The fundamental elements of a Yogic discipline, can be found in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra, II.29: Yama niyamāsana prāṇāyāma pratyāhāra dhāraṇā dhyāna samādhayo’ṣṭāv aṅgāni. Patañjali elucidates, “Ethical social conduct, principled personal demeanor, yogik posture, regulation of one’s energy field, withdrawal of projections, concentration, absorption and continual integration are the eight constituents of Yoga.”
What I want to bring your focus to is that Yoga is a large topic of study and must be applied by each person in their own way throughout their life. Learning happens in and through the body. Yoga is embodied wisdom that it time-tested and holds relevance even now in the 21st Century.
For me, yoga has been the means by which I can talk about what’s real in my life. Like the stuff that actually matters to me—the paradoxes, the messy parts of life, the things that are challenging to say out loud, things that are even hard to find words for. A practice in the art, science, and psychology of yoga is giving me the tools to move through life not armed or armored but instead with an appropriate level of vulnerability coupled with nervine strength. Yoga is a container to hold the complexities of life. Not to “got comfortable” with the unknown but to help me hold myself through crisis with some awareness and dignity.
Yoga is yet another elucidation of what all the mystics throughout all time have pointed to, danced with, wrote poetry about. Yoga is relationship with The Holy, as the Martín Prechtel writes about so often in his books.
Yoga Sūtra II.28 Yogāṅgānuṣṭhānād aśuddhi kṣaye jñāna dīptir āviveka khyāteḥ
”Embrace of the eight-fold path remove what’s no longer serving and ignite the light of discriminating wisdom to reveal one's inner radiance.”
It’s imperative that one employ critical thinking and pragmatism when stepping foot onto the path, in search of The Holy. Even before one takes up the physical conditioning, attitudes, or postures of yoga, Patañjali encourages us to engage with ethical social conduct and principled personal observances. For me this is very helpful instruction to pay attention to. Before I even begin on the path of transformation, one must ensure their personal relationships with their physical and mental space is cleaned up as well and one’s interpersonal relationships.
Yoga means union. To heal the split within ourselves heals the polarizing view points that split humanity apart. We must start with ourselves without reverting to narcissistic tendencies. The practical application might go like this: is your space clean? Is your physical body in alignment with what you keep saying you want? Do you wear clean clothes? Etcetera. Yoga is also the attitude one takes in life. Am I conditioned to see the world through lenses of fear? Am I habituated to say, “It’s all good",” what it really isn’t?
This is where yoga offers us a hand to engage with life in a new way—from a place of continual integration, holistically, and with a sense of humor!
#2: Yoga is for everyone and not every facet of Yoga is for everyone.
Yes, learning a skill, especially one that we do with our bodies, like dancing, swimming, or playing violin can be awkward, uncomfortable, and challenging at times. Especially if we’re just learning for the first time in our 50’s 60’s or 70’s. Please remember than learning anything new requires much discipline, dedication, and repetition.
Often when we’re learning something new it’s challenging to discern the levels and layers of sensation in and through the body and our perception of pain varies, depending on our perception of our physiology. A good rule of thumb for cultivating your discernment is, “Is what I am doing bringing me closer to my aim?” Also, “Is this sensation that I’m feeling sharp, acute, or local?”
Some more helpful questions to ask yourself:
Is this the kind of discomfort that’s useful for my growth process? Or is this going to cause injury? Is this activity integrating or dis-integrating me? Is an existing injury being triggered?
Time will tell. If you leave your yoga mat or your meditation cushion hating yourself in a way that keep you from being curious or being open, then: Stop. Back off. Troubleshoot.
Also, I as your teacher I’m a resource. I will help you find the answer. If I don’t know.
Yoga shouldn’t hurt anything except your egoic sense of self. The only injury yoga should cause is injury to your inner narcissist.
#3: Confusion, awkwardness, and not knowing is part of yoga. Not knowing is the rest of your learning.
Be an apprentice to limitation. To the Goddess of Limit. This is not “Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.” This is apprenticing ourselves to grief, discomfort, and confusion. Because that’s life. This is life. It may transform and “get better” however, this is not getting comfortable with being uncomfortable that implies that there is some attainment possible, some hurdle to overcome. This is a process of learning and humbling ourselves. To what is and what is, is beautiful and hard to bear.
#4: There’s nothing to prove and so much to learn, lifetimes worth. Of course, we are going to want to seem and look capable and adapt at what we are endeavoring to undertake. However, we can all take a moment to remember what it’s like to be a beginner, and to not know, and to look foolish, to even fall down sometimes too. We’ve got nothing to prove and everything to learn.
As a teacher of Yoga, I deeply care about my student’s level of commitment and personal undertaking and investment and their willingness to pursue this new endeavor and their consistency and they also don’t have to prove anything to me or anyone else.
I don’t expect you to know how to do anything. I don’t even expect you to know how to do what I’m asking you to do. You’re helping me become a better teacher, and I am helping you become more skilled and proficient and masterful at this project of Yoga that were engaged in together. I never ask my students to do anything I have not already done as a student myself.
As Jason Crandall says, “As a beginner be an actual beginner. That’s all you have to do is allow yourself to begin.”
What I care about as your teacher, is your level of commitment, your willingness to be taught, your coach-ability, and your receptivity to learning new things. And the essence of who you are coming forward. I care that you care about this project of Yoga we’re involved in. Yes, what every teacher wants is dedicated students. And what I want most for my students is to be grown-ups: taking responsibility for their own health, wealth, and relationships. Period.
There’s nothing to prove and there’s so much we can learn from one another.
#5: Integrity of movement is more important than range of movement. How you do something matters.
I remember being in the yoga classroom with my teacher, Bhavani and I was really struggling to get up into handstand. She softly said to the room, “How you approach yoga is how you do everything.” I laughed instantly relieved and discouraged. Wow, I thought to myself, I’d better pay more attention to the ways in which I spend energy unnecessarily.
Āsana means “to sit,” “to wait,” and “to breathe.” It’s important to note that exercising the body is for the purpose of being able to sit without pain in the knees, sit without pain in the hips, sit without pain in the spine and sit without pain in the mind. Yes, increasing strength is important as we age, and so is increasing your capacity to relax and receive, be patient, cultivate discernment and your sense of humor.
What we learn slowly and over a long period of time will stay with us much longer than that which we learn quickly. Also, what we learn through “failure” often has a much longer staying power than what we learn through “success.”
#6: Learn to trust and listen to your own body. Verify. Verify. Verify. Do not take what I (or anyone else says) as the end of the line. Test it out. Or as my teacher, Bhavani says at the end of her classes, “Now go find out!” This is imperative for learning to occur. Learning doesn’t happen outside your body.
The body never lies. You can trust your body. You are the only one that has your unique body and is living your peculiar life.
This goes both ways. As a teacher, I do not want to assume that I know more about you than you do. That’s simply not possible. You know yourself or are getting to know yourself better than anyone else on the planet. That’s the point. Don’t worry, you’re here to learn about yourself. And you will!
Embrace, repetition, simplicity, and consistency.
#7: Yoga is lifelong endeavor that will change (and “should” change) as time passes and you grow up.
Just like learning how to ride a bike, dance, or play musical instrument—you can learn how to ride, or you can learn how to ride. The difference is up to you. The difference lies in your level of commitment and your time in (hours spent practicing). It all depends on if you really want to take it seriously. Take on the Project of Yoga.
The practice is going to grow you, and it meets us where we’re at. We are going to change and evolve and our discipline of yoga is going to change and evolve. How it looks, what it does for us, what we offer to the practice is all going to change at different stages of our lives. Please remember that yoga is for everyone and not every posture or every element is for everyone. (See #2.)
This goes for me as a teacher, too. I am presenting you with a body of work. Therefore what you learn today is not what I taught ten years ago (thank goodness!) and is not going be the same thing you’re learning ten years from now (hopefully!). There will be through threads, there will be elements of consistency and coherency and similarity. And I am also being evolved by this practice. So if we stay together, hopefully we’re going learn new things as time goes on.
[Also, quick note: in all the on-going daily yoga classes and monthly immersion that I teach, I never repeat the same class twice. I tailor my classes to who shows up and if you were to take everything single one of my classes, you would learn something new each time.]
The more we know the less we know. You will soon find out, or in ten years time, that there is a lot more new subtle variations on the discipline of Yoga as a science which leave room for interpretation, and need for contextualization of each stage of one’s practice. So in the beginning fundamentals, things are very black-and-white and that’s important so one can learn how not to injure themselves. Then things get more nuanced, and specialized. This is where a good guide comes in as essential. Yoga is a tradition that is learned through transmission from Heart-to-Heart.
A lifelong endeavor is not going to be linear. Heck, life is not linear! It is a very narrow way of thinking to assume that when we start learning, any new skill or a new project, that we’re just going to progress and progress and progress without periods of backsliding, plateauing, going sideways, or deviating; that is all part of the path of Yoga and of life.
As you grow, Yoga grows. It is a science after all, and is meant to be worked with, and engaged individually so that these teachings take root in our physiology and become part of who we are. These teachings are like a Mother Cat—She picks us up by the scruff and we go limp so that She can carry us where we need to be going. Let these teachings strengthen and humble us.
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This is not an exhaustive list. This is just the beginning. What would you add to the list? What questions do you have for me?
Y O G A
>> Join the Yoga Sūtra Study Group where we sit in good company, learn to chant the Yoga Sūtra of Patanjali and unpack these time-tested wisdom threads made relevant for the modern yogi-in-training. These sessions are for those interested in Yoga on a deeper level, and not just the physical postures. Sundays 11:45-1:15pm, Prescott, AZ.
>> In-person Yoga Classes happening every week in Prescott, Arizona. Pre-registration recommended, drop-ins welcome.
Sundays 9:00-11:00am, āsana, + 11:45-1:15, sūtra (The Lodge)
Mondays 9:00-10:30am (Art Hive)
Wednesdays 4:00-5:30pm (The Lodge)
Thursday 9:00-10:30am (Art Hive).
>> The next Yoga Immersion is coming up December 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, 2023 10-3pm in Prescott, Arizona. Get more info here.
>> Check out The Yogi’s Roadmap Podcast. These are conversations I have with my teacher, mentor, and Deep-Heart-Friend, Bhavani Maki. “Real food for thought and self-discovery” -Raviindra