06/06/2021
⚖️Balance and Yoga⚖️
When we think of yoga, it is perhaps obvious that a regular practice will help to improve your physical balance, but perhaps less obvious is the way in which your regular yoga practice and the skills you learn through it can spill off the mat and into your life at large! 🧘♀️
In the Yoga Sutra 2.46 written by Patanjali, it says about the physical practice of Yoga that: 'The Yoga postures should be steady and comfortable' ; easier said than done in a challenging Yoga class! However, when we start to look into the original wording of the text, the nuance of this phrase begins to come to light:
'Sthira-Sukham Asanam'
The word 'Sthira' can be understood to mean 'strength' or 'force' and 'Sukha'- 'ease' or 'grace'.
When we look at this interpretation in the context of our physical practice, we can see how we must balance or modulate the use of force and effort that is required to complete our daily practice: we must put in enough effort and exertion in order to complete the class and improve and develop our practice, but not so much that we cause injury or exhaustion. Somewhere between the two extremes we find the grace in the asana and thus; the balance.
If we look to apply this principle to our daily life off the mat, we can think in terms of energy. If, for example, we think of our energy as a finite resource, if we use all of our energy reserves on one aspect of our life such as work, we risk running out before we can harness that energy for the things we enjoy. I'm sure we've all experienced that burnout after a stressful week or month at work! Finding that 'Sukha', that ease and grace in life, relies on us using our energy wisely. Spending it where needed and reserving it where we can.
Yoga can be a powerful tool for introspection and understanding and recognising where your energy levels are at the present moment, and where your priorities lie. Using the knowledge of yourself you gain from your time on the mat, you can recognise when you start to feel drained and when you may need to reserve energy, likewise when you have much more to give!
If you made it to the end of this mini essay, you may enjoy one of my classes! 😁