~ A Deeper Dive with the Philosophy behind my classes ~
I have
always been fascinated by the balance in the world ~ the balance
of land development with conservation, free markets with
regulation, calm with unrest, serious with playful,
humorous with solemn, movement with stillness. As I've gotten (slightly) older, I started
to realize a more fundamental aspect of the nature of the duality in
which we all exist ~ that of the doing with the not doing ~ this could
correspond loosely to the yang and the yin elements of the
universe. As my physical yoga practice deepened and my body
created more and more space for my newly discovered prana, I became
more intrigued with the balance of every pose. This balance could
be described using terms as yin/yang, love/will, organic/muscular,
surrender/effort, left/right, feminine/masculine, lunar/solar,
exhale/inhale, parasympathetic/sympathetic, forward fold/backbend,
stillness/movement, the ground from which everything arises/everything
that arises, non-dual/oneness, Buddha/Yeshua, not-doing/doing.
As I began to live more deeply into this balance inherent in every pose, intended or not, perceived as balance or not, this awareness was the vehicle from which I was able to bring my practice out of the studio and into my day to day existence. It was the awareness I built in my practice on my mat that brought my awareness to a living balance off the mat.
As with every thing in life there is a balance, and a natural corrective nature built into each everything. Sometimes the corrective nature manifests as subtle, like a slight muscle strain, a loving gesture, or a cold bringing our awareness to a small aspect of our being in the world that may need tending; other times the corrective nature manifests as larger events such as unexpected life changes, emotional breakdown or physical illness ~ the universe will always bring you what you need, but not necessarily what you want ~ Everything in our lives hangs in a balance, and the more space we can create to feel and appreciate that balance from an authentic place of being, the more real our lives become. With Hatha Yoga, the more physical awareness we are able to develop using breath, movement and stillness on the mat, the more space we create to track our own path and presence off the mat.
Yoga to me is not about being in a pose - it is the process of finding a pose, whether the pose is a physical asana in a yoga studio or way of holding ourselves through events in our lives. It is about fully inhabiting our humanity, and with that, riding the waves that life gives us. It is about inhabiting our humanity in a wholly personal way and balancing ourselves through the ebb and flow of our lives.
