Have you tried encouraging someone you know to try yoga, only to be met with the objection that they can’t (or won’t) try yoga because they’re not flexible? In reality, the barrier to entry for a yoga practice is quite low. All that is required is for one to breathe.
In Sharon Gannon’s book The Magic Ten and Beyond, she expands on this practice of breathing through the explanation of pranayama. The breath that we use to connect to the poses is ujayi, and this breath has a quality of equal inhalation and exhalation, called sama vritti in Sanskrit. Do a few breath exercises and you’ll quickly notice that the pace and rhythm of your breath is your own. When we practice yoga, we focus on our own breathing. We don’t think of tapping our neighboring yogi in the shoulder just to say “hey, you’re breathing wrong”. We have an understanding that our practice is our own, and so long as each is not hurting anyone, we honor our own way of breathing and moving. And yet, when we leave the safety of the yoga practice room, we constantly judge people to be doing the wrong thing, living lives the wrong way, because we think our own way is the only right way. Or perhaps we are the recipient of this judgment, we are the ones who are told we should be doing things differently. The breath is a beautifully simple thing. In practicing sama vritti, we take in only what we need, no more, no less. We don’t hold back just as we don’t hold our breath. Then we let go of what we take in, without attachment, without overthinking. Each breath is fluid and seamless and free-flowing, because we are confident that one will follow another and another for some time to come. It’s a practice of living with the same ease. We take in exactly what we need, we hold nothing back, and we let go. Next time you chant the mantra Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu, keep in mind that this mantra includes all beings. This includes yourself. Allow yourself to breathe and move and live in such a way that honors your own beat. When you live your most authentic life, even when it takes a bit of an adjustment in the beginning, you’ll find ease, lightness, and effortlessness in the long run. When you are in alignment with who you really are, you are free.
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My mid-20s was supposedly an exciting time of my life. I was living abroad, independent for the first time. I had a financially rewarding job that allowed me extensive travels, a boyfriend whom friends immediately see as good-looking and charming, and a life that looked just perfect— from the outside, that is. What people didn’t see was that I was chronically unhappy. I felt this emptiness, as though there needs to be more, there HAS to be more. And so I distracted myself by going for more— more money, more possessions, more distractions to cover up the emptiness. Looking back now, those years of unhappiness are at least partly due to the fact that I lived with a sense of entitlement. I thought the world owed me something, and whatever it was giving me wasn’t enough. Instead of appreciating what I already have, I was stuck in my self-created misery because I thought I needed more and I deserved more.
The focus of this month is an extension of last month’s. It is called The Magic Ten and Beyond, also the title of the book my teacher Sharon Gannon recently published. Here, spiritual practices we can incorporate into our daily lives are listed. Last month, I shared the other practices— the Magic 10 warm-up sequence, giving blessings, feeding the birds. But actually, the very first recommendation in this book is the practice of gratitude. Sharon-ji explains that our brain can be rewired. If we are in the habit of complaining, then it becomes easier and easier to keep complaining, and we may feel stuck in this viscous cycle. The good news is that we can train our brain to do the opposite, we can practice gratitude every single morning until such time that gratitude becomes the first thing we experience the moment we wake up. When I was stuck in my sense of entitlement, I had no humility, and hence, no gratitude. In other words, I was just full of myself. It’s impossible to be happy with that kind of arrogant self-centeredness. Humility and gratitude are like two sides of the same coin. When we humble ourselves, when we let go of the need for perfection, when we are able to be grateful for how things are instead of constantly being attached to how much better things could be in the future, we create a home within ourselves, a safety net where we feel happy, simply for breathing this breath, simply for inhabiting this body, simply for being alive at this moment. Think of one thing you are grateful for today. And repeat in your mind: I am grateful for— and say what you are grateful for. Repeat this like a mantra. Eventually you may find you no longer need the object. I am grateful—without object or condition. I am grateful— it becomes a natural state. |
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