Breaking Habits, Being Present

June 1st, 2014

Each time you step onto your yoga mat is a wonderful moment to remind yourself that you are embarking on a practice of being present. For many we slip into our comfort with yoga, looking for the type of class we “like” (i.e. are good at, feel safe, know the routine), take from the same teacher, or practice in the same style only to ignore the habit we have gotten into. While those practices can make us feel good about ourselves temporarily, eventually we become disenchanted, restless, unsatisfied or just plain stuck.

Yoga gives us the time, space and reflection to see our personal habits that are blocking us from truly becoming unified and uncovering true bliss. Or shall I just say Yoga helps us to uncover our happiness. In Sanskrit we call these ruts Samskara (read more about Samskara with the link.) Rooted in Ego, Desire, Aversion and Fear (Avidya), Samskara’s ruts, like a train track, take us along a safe path with limited destinations. A Yoga practice gives us the opportunity to change tracks, or vehicles, even learn to fly!

So many students come from the Western mind that looks for the goal of how a pose “should be.” This style of practice neglects being present in the body and being aware of what one’s own body needs in the moment. Making the transition from a goal driven, mind centric practice to a being present, feeling and mind/heartful practice is a huge leap on the yoga path. Feel your mat (sand or paddleboard) and use it as a touchstone to remind you to awaken and rattle the mind cage while breathing into your body. Then begin your practice from what is available or happening in the present time. What feels tight, restricted, unavailable in your body, in your breath, in your mind is the starting point. Let each pose offered to you in a class be an opportunity to open, regenerate, move, or unleash something within you. Feel it!

In the beginning it can be very helpful to learn from one teacher, or use one style of yoga to become familiar with and understand the practice. Once you understand the nature of the practice, and begin to see your Samskaras (yes, there will be limitless potential there), expansion happens as you venture out again from the comfort of the familiar. Remember your first yoga class? Remember how unfamiliar it all seemed? Let your practice grow by reaching out into your community and discovering new ways to “rock your familiar.” After all yoga is a practice, with life being the event.

Practice on your “mat” how to stretch, center, expand, transition and open, then use that practice in life every time something shifts and changes. It is the practice that will help you to be present, see the shifts coming, breath with ease or dig deep into your strength to find your way gracefully through the transitions that life offers you.

Check out all the different yoga practices offered in your community or while you are on vacation, and enjoy exploring your yoga practice. Don’t look for what you like, but open up to what you can explore. If you always take a vinyasa class try out a restorative or yin class. If you always take a class indoors get outside and explore the unevenness of the Earth or flowing nature of water. When you don’t like a teacher or style of class you might want to take a moment to reflect on why not. What is it about who you are that is being challenged by that teacher or style? Maybe it is just what the doctor ordered up for you to expand in some new or very deep way.

Rattle the cage, then pop that lock. Open to liberation, then set yourself free! Aum, I AM, in all of that simplicity!