This text is addressed to all people who are super dynamic, who do a lot of things in their day, who are stressed, who are all the time on the move, and who believe that yoga is not for them. I often hear the phrase yoga is not for me, what? to go to the class, and do ommm and such things…
The practice of asana in yoga can be extremely dynamic, you sweat a lot and exercise your body in a way that you did not think existed. You can also enter a room for other reasons, such as to heal an injury, or some pain you may be feeling, or find ways to manage your stress or support the sport you do or do your stretching. Or simply because you have been told that you will feel better.
Yoga, in the final analysis, is you! And doing things that do not suit you is something out of your nature, and that can not be yoga. Can you ask a child whose energy is overflowing to sit still in meditation? Isn’t it like taking all his power from him? But what if he achieve the desired result from a different path that suits him better?
So, as I myself have a very dynamic presence let me tell you a story. A few years ago (a little less than 10) I entered a yoga room. I got obsessed, and in various ways, this practice, through random (or not so random) situations changed my life. I changed my job, I changed habits, I probably dismantled and reassembled from the beginning. The principles and qualities that were inside me did not change, my core, my center remained the same and even strengthened. The change, or rather what made the difference was that I got to know me better. I loved me as I am and on this basis, I evolved, I blossomed.
I had believed this in the beginning, I admired this “calm”. I also wanted to have this image, I tried, I practiced, I observed, I listened to teachers and yogis and of course none of them came, instead I was drowning in my stressful self more and more. Until I realized that calm has nothing to do with the image. The conquest of the coveted serenity that yoga promises you is acquired with a different approach and you do not need to look anywhere else but inside yourself.
Yoga is a tool of self-observation. A journey to yourself and the fulfillment of your dharma, that is, your purpose on this planet. Your dharma is uniquely yours, you are so special. One of my favorite teachers says that we are crystalline figures in the Divine. So, yoga does not magically transform you into another person. That is not the purpose. The ultimate success in yoga comes through your acquaintance with your true self, acceptance, and finally its expression in the service of the common good.
Slowly, through yoga practices and your own honest mood, the landscape clears. Unfortunately, it is cloudy from the thousands of thoughts that flood your mind. A huge magnifying mirror is in front of you, the most beautiful but also the darkest aspects of yourself are there and staring at you. Can you bear to see you? To love you? To express yourself at last!
And all this finally relaxes you. They take from your back a huge burden of social decency and constant comparison that in the end only hurts us. It separates us instead of uniting us, divides us, and weakens us. Individually but also as a whole. And that is everywhere, in what you eat, in how you dress, in your body, in your family situation, in your work, and even in your yoga…. Inner peace comes from the ability you acquire to accept yourself just as you are. You stop pretending, playing roles that do not express you honestly. The struggle to be accepted, to fit in other people’s clothes stops and you just are. With your good and your bad.
The inner peace that you were looking for in yoga is here.
And you are the same person!
Connected to your soul more than ever.
Clean, free
and more you than ever.
Namaste
