THE ART OF ALIGNING

Learning the physical and mental practices of yoga is a hard task, it takes time and effort to train the mind and body. Day after day we show up to our practice and its easy to get impatient. Often when we come to Yoga it is because we want to achieve something or gain something. We come saying “I would like to achieve better health” or “gain clarity of mind”, “I want to recover from this” or “Destress from that”

We live complicated, busy lives; and we show up to our practice with all of our “stuff”, hoping we can train our bodies and minds to reach some kind of meditative state. But sometimes the trying and the persevering gets in the way. Our mind becomes consumed by the goal instead of the breathe. We forget to stay present, to stay in touch with the reality of what is going on. We are thinking ahead to that balance we are trying to master or that twist we are trying to bind and we forget the clarity we feel standing in a simple mountain pose or how exhilarating it feels to take a deep breath.

Alan Watts says; “Muddy water is cleared by leaving it alone”. So maybe through passivity, through watching and witnessing we can show up for ourselves. Letting the practice with all its highs and lows come and go. Expressing our compassion through patience, knowing that a Yoga practice does not require judgement. Some days we balance and bind, other days we rest and modify. Letting our “mud” settle by just watching and being witness to ourselves, we loosen our grasp and practice patience knowing that yoga is a practice without a finite goal.

The buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh has a mantra; “Sitting here is like sitting under the bodhi tree. My body is mindfulness itself, entirely free from distraction”. So throughout our practices if we find ourselves jumping ahead or becoming impatient or frustrated maybe we can let go of our plans and be present to what is. We can always come back to the breath or the mantra; “Sitting here is like sitting under the bodhi tree my body is mindfulness itself”.