The interconnectedness of all + how our practice allows us to come into contact with life
Last week I accidentally cut someone off while driving and it felt really icky. I had this little moment of closing in my body. Ugh, I felt that. And then yesterday I read a comment from someone who said some mean words. And there it was again, this closing reaction of my body. Not a big intense reaction, just a little squeeze. And I was reminded that this happens- we have these little moments all the time in little ways. Just humans relating day to day. Everyday life is filled with little moments of contractions.
And these little subtle (and of course, sometimes very tangible and big) reactions, these little contractions stick in the body and have the power to create a sense of unease in our conscious minds. Which is completely normal of course. It is part of us interacting in this world. Constantly engaging with the external. And our yoga practice is where we get to meet these contractions. It gives us a chance to clear some of what has been stuck. To notice where we feel closed, where we feel contracted. And to open up those spaces.
And then something exhales. We create a little bit of room, to feel free. We expand to life.
And we do that through presence. We do that through coming into the body. We do that through a deep honest compassionate attention.
We are redirecting our attention from the perpetual narratives of the mind to the felt sense and the subtle sensations of the body. And that alone starts to invite this greater intelligence. So that the contracted part of you has space to expand. Our mat can become a place for us to communicate in the deepest honesty with our body. Where we can actually let everything that is just be. And paradoxically through that, through the sheer power of presence and allowance, we soften and open up contractions.
We create safety for the body to guide us to the places that are in need of breath.
And this is also why I love to invite some wiggles and some intuitive movements within a shape. Why I encourage moments of closed eyes and deep breaths within a shape and on your mat in general. Because this is when we can feel into what is there. It creates room to come into contact with the moment. Where we can stop and pause and inquire. Inquire what is alive in your body and what is alive in this shape. It‘s an invitation to take care of yourself and your body in those shapes in a way that feels exactly right for you. And the power of giving yourself that… 🍃
But really any of these practices, whether we do an alignment focused vinyasa practice or we are doing a wiggly flow - its all just tools to discover a relationship with the body, to enquire what is here and how we can meet it.
Everything in your life is interconnected.
Everything affects everything. The practice lies in asking: how can we keep ourselves available to see the things that we might not notice? To start to lean into the more subtle qualities of what is here. And to then understand that maybe this email that you got last week is the reason for your back pain because your body contracted and didn‘t yet get the chance to release. Maybe that conversation that you had last week with your friend triggered a feeling of unsafety and ever since then you have slightly higher levels of anxiety?
Our practice is the place for us to connect these dots. To understand the interconnection of all and to give it space. Creating a wide enough space to find these threads. So it never really is about the shape. it is about how deeply you can meet yourself in this shape and in the next. It is about you meeting your body. It is about you becoming aware to what is here for you to feel. Keeping our awareness wide enough, so we notice what is showing up on the mat. Expanding our capacity to be aware. Yoga is an invitation for and an opening to the expanse of our awareness. Of our aliveness.
The ultimate teaching of yoga is really the self inquiry- how deep can we go into our own somatic visceral experience so that the experience itself becomes the teacher?