Unfolding

I want to unfold.
Let no place in me hold itself closed,
for where I am closed, I am false.
~ Ranier Maria Rilke

When I want to get better at life, I practice Yoga.

I recently took the Gallup Organization’s Strengthfinder test, a free offering with the book Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. It is interesting that one of my five greatest strengths is Intellection: “You like mental activity. You like exercising the ‘muscles’ of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions.” I then look curiously at that label in correlation with the focus of my current Yoga practice. Right now, my practice (and, my struggle) is getting out of my head (and, out of my bed at 4:30 a.m.) daily and really tapping into the physical body.

It is so easy for me to pick up a book and read, think, muse and use that information to make sense and applications in the labyrinth of the world we live in. It comes less natural, at this point in my life, to set aside time for physical practice. Part of that natural selection results from the last several decades of mind training with de-emphasis on body concentration. It’s easier and simpler to stay with the known strength.

Yet, sometimes, all of that focused and habitual practice may risk overshadowing and weakening parts of us that are equally important fibers at the core of our true nature. What seems to come naturally might be the result of habits and training over the course of a lifetime and driven by outer circumstances and influences rather than our heart’s great longings meeting up with the world’s great needs [1] in ways that can be sometimes effortless and a little magical. Some of our habits, training, and practices are all part of the practical considerations of living in the real world; and, it is also a great relief to know that if what seems to be naturally available to us is strictly a result of habit and training, then we are offered a window for adjustment and change. There is the opportunity to retrain, to unfold some more, and to develop existing, new, or different habits, talents, and strengths.

So, as though it was a pre-ordained part of the greater plan for my Yoga path of learning, I stumbled into an Ashtanga yoga class. Ashtanga yoga systemizes the physical practice of yoga into set sequences so a practitioner can memorize the sets and then practice without wondering which pose to take up next. That, for a person with the strength of intellection, is, for now, a great gift that balances the physical and intellectual natures. Ashtanga yoga is also a very strong physical practice, intense enough and requiring enough focus that the mind doesn’t have a lot of room to be engaged with intellectual curiosities when the body is in the midst of its practice.

The different styles of yoga offer different approaches and different ways to focus our attention and no one style of yoga is the “right” style of yoga. Each type of practice, when based on the traditional practices and teachings of Yoga, is part of the great patchwork quilt of Yoga practices developed within the larger Yoga community and are each interlaced with principles, advice, guidance, and methodical physical and spiritual practices, all carefully designed with the laboratory of our lives in mind. We are all scientists specializing in the observation and careful experimentation of our individual self in relation to the larger universe of life. Yoga is the melting pot for the best of all religions and all spiritual practices, not to even mention the best of all physical, breathing, and mind training practices. It is full of possibilities for all of us. And, the variety simply affirms the great beauty of Yoga as a set of practices that support each indivdual's personal journey. The style you choose depends on who you are and where you are at any moment in time. [2]

My beginning into the focused study and practice of Yoga, and my training ground for RYT 200, was through the system of Hatha Yoga as taught by Swami Rama of the Himalayas (Himalayan Institute, Honesdale, PA). When I began my focused practice of Yoga in 2007, the Himalayan Institute’s (HI) method and approach to practice nurtured me and provided sanctuary for turning inward; and, it weaved my intellection seamlessly with a strong and flexible physical practice that converged with meditation practices, contemplation practices, and self-knowledge and understanding as the ultimate goal. All of these practices helped bring me back to center and begin a new process in the evolution of self discovery. The HI training laid a strong foundation for a lifetime of Yoga practice. And, even as I experiment with Ashtanga, my practice is infused with and I continue to grow in the teachings from my Himalayan Institute education. These two approaches to Yoga practice have similarities in their family tree and marry well.

Each style of the physical practice of yoga asanas should, somewhere along the way, lead us back to the practices of Yoga where body, mind, breath, and spirit yoke or unite in a way that gives us a sense of equanimity. In both Ashtanga yoga and Hatha yoga as taught by Swami Rama of the Himalayas, the physical asana practice is one piece of the eight pieces that make up the whole Yoga pie. The other seven pieces of the pie are supported by our physical practice; and, vice versa, our physical practice is supported by all the other practices. It is these Eight Limbs of Yoga [3] which provide us with methods and practices that can touch all parts of our life and provide us with practical and methodical ways for learning about our self and our world and learning to navigate the complexities of life. Yoga practice is a tried and true method for unfolding.

When I engage in the methodical physical practices of yoga asana, pranayama, and meditation, my body, breath, mind, and spirit begin to unfold. These direct physical practices then foster and support the unfolding of practices off the mat and cushion, outside the ashram called home, and right in the middle of the mess of life: relationships, engagement with the world, unresolved conflicts, pain, joy, sorrow, peace, anger, love; crashing down of the soul and soaring high again; the mind unfolds; the spirit unfolds; the soul opens up. Everything. Everything unfolds effortlessly through the effort of a committed practice.

Enjoy your daily practice, whatever that may be, and the unfolding it can bring.
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Because “No man is an island, entire of itself”: [4]
Thank you to my teacher and friend, Akasha Ellis whose Ashtanga Yoga classes are making my body stronger; for his Kundalini Yoga teachings and practices that are helping me tap into another dimension of Prana; for his committed early morning sadhanas he offers the yoga community; and Mysore. Each nurtures my personal practice and supports my unfolding. You are so real and, clearly, beloved by so many. Lots of love.

[1] This concept comes from Parker J. Palmer’s book, The Courage to Teach, quoting Frederick Buechner’s image of vocation as “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” In our home, our ashram, we often refer to vocation as the heart’s great longing and the world’s great need.

[2] Article that outlines a plethora of different style of yoga practice: http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/165/

[3] In Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, the eightfold path is called ashtanga, which literally means "eight limbs" (ashta=eight, anga=limb). These eight steps basically act as guidelines on how to live a meaningful and purposeful life. They serve as a prescription for moral and ethical conduct and self-discipline; they direct attention toward one's health; and they help us to acknowledge the spiritual aspects of our nature. http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/158

[4] John Donne's Devotions, 1624.