Everyday Yogini

Well thank goodness for Kelcey over at Mama Bird Diaries! I’ve been meaning to start an offering of “Ask the Everyday Yogini” and yesterday, Kelcey asked a great question, not even knowing I was planning to start this!

Kelcey asked the following question:

“On another note… today in my ashtanga yoga class, my teacher was counting maddeningly slow in one of the poses. I was so annoyed. Afterwards he told me it was my choice whether to be miserable in that moment. What on earth does that mean? And how do you get through difficult, uncomfortable, tooo long yoga poses? If you ever feel like addressing this… I’d love it Nona!”

Before we dive in to Kelcey’s question, I want to first address a question that relates to this. Why do we do Yoga in the first place? Many of us come to Yoga for a lithe body and stress relief, but the real and true gift that we get through our practice on the mat is the ability to practice being present to whatever arises. Yoga, and life, is not always about getting what we want or being comfortable. There is pain and discomfort- our edge is often pushed. Equanimity, otherwise known as being-at-peace-no-matter-what-is-thrown-at-you, is what you get when you can be present and aware without reacting.

So, generally, what happens for us on the mat is just an echo of what happens in our lives. So, do you have control issues? Are you sad? Are you totally Type-A? Are you meek and timid? It will be there, because, as one of my favorite teachers, Cheri Huber, points out, how we do anything is how we do everything. We make choices in any given moment to respond in our habitual way (irritation, getting tense, complaining, etc.). And our practice, and our lives, give us lots of opportunity to really see how we create pain for ourselves through our responses. Then, we have the amazing opportunity to change our mind about how we respond!

All that being said, there are many “tricks” available to develop a gentle and kind curiosity about how we respond to things that make us “itch”, especially on the mat, but these techniques can also be used in daily life.

-Focus fully and completely on the breath. Pretend like you don’t even have a body, you are just breath. If that is too vague, you can count your breaths or label them, “in and out”.

-Go directly to the heart of the discomfort and explore it. See how it changes. Become a scientist watching an experiment. Develop unceasing curiosity about how your body changes in each moment. Become enthralled with the sensations of the body or how your mind gyrates around certain poses.

-Systematically, from your feet to your head, relax every muscle that is not needed to keep you in the asana. In particular note whether your belly, shoulders, jaw and other facial muscles are tightening up. Let them be loose and easy. Notice if that changes the sensation of discomfort.

-As a last resort, be silly. Stick your tongue out at your neighbor or the teacher.

A shift of perspective is all it takes. Sometimes it doesn’t feel at all possible, but it’s always available to us. And no matter what, it’s all a learning experience, so be gentle with yourself.

If you have a question you would like to Ask the Everyday Yogini, ask it here. And please indicate if you would rather remain anonymous.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Ask the Everyday Yogini. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.