quotes, inspirations, words of wisdom, daily doses of positive perspectives…. they are everywhere! we “like” them, we share them, and we blog about them, but do we understand them? do we live and experience the words and phrases we intellectually understand? are these collections of words something we strive for or are they engrained into our very being? how do we know? how do we really know we understand something? is understanding enough? look at all those question marks;) i believe it is the experiences that make our “understanding” ring as truth. one of my favorite quotes is a chinese proverb that says…. “tell me and i will forget, show me and i may remember, involve me and i will understand”. thru yoga and meditation we become “involved” in the discovery of our true nature and experiences of our truth.
plant your feet to find your truth.
the practice of yoga is so much more than just a series of physical postures. it is a journey to find the very best of ourselves and express it in our own unique way. since the day we were born we have been drawn to explore the outside world, but how many of us have searched for the source of our own desires? or dug up the roots of our fears? yoga encourages us to be as familiar with our inner workings as we are with the world around us. to be as familiar with our thoughts, feelings, memories, desires, and imagination as we are with time, space and causality. without a fine understanding of ourselves, who we are, how we relate to the world and why we do the things we do, we cannot possibly live life to the fullest. when you can move through both the inner and outer domains of life with freedom and finesse, you fulfill the highest purpose of yoga.
on the mat, the most logical starting point is our foundation. even for a seasoned yogi to revisit the basics is a valuable trip. how you align your body, where you place your hands and your feet, how you spread your toes, bend your knee and draw energy inward is reflected in the integrity of the pose. without a solid foundation the ability to reach up and express the fullness of the asana is compromised.
pause, take your time, stay steady and strong… which doesn’t always mean physically.
at a deeper level, asana means to fully express the integration of mind, body, and spirit. here you become consciously aware of the flow of life energy in your body and perform the asanas with full awareness. it is such a beautiful practice for performing actions in life with awareness.
use truth as a foundation to express life more beautifully.
off the mat, our foundation can be related to our truth, what we believe, and how we live our life. it can be difficult at times to grasp what this really means. on the mat, we can trace a feeling of unsteadiness to our lack of attention on how we connect with the earth. off the mat, however, our feelings of disconnect are not so easily traced. we can become so distracted from our truth. in a world with so much information available to us and so many different perspectives we are often left feeling ungrounded.
the importance of a strong foundation is woven into every aspect of living. taking time to reflect on other foundations in our lives and their present condition can foster a sense of inner awareness. to find our truth, a relationship with ourselves has to be established. spending time in meditation, in deep contemplation, or simply quiet time alone cultivates our sense of connection, not only to ourselves and our truth, but to the world around us as well. if we are actively involved in practices that help us return back to our truth, to get back into that balanced state, our capacity and our desire to remain in that balanced state changes. the path of yoga helps us to recognize when we are moving away from our truth and gives us the tools to manage our life so it stays in balance. there is a reason we long for peace, connection, and balance and when we find that reason, through direct experience, our roots will run deep, our foundation will be strong, and our life will bloom and grow.
