*If you just want to skip to the practice, here is a video of Surya Namaskar, or the Sun Salutation*:
I’m sure you are wondering what this yoga thing is all about. I still do, and I’ve practiced on average 3 hours a day for the past 3 years. I made it my life when I decided to quit my job as a mortgage consultant for the largest insurance company in America 2 years ago, went backpacking to Central America and came back with a certification to teach according to the Yoga Alliance organization. Of course, getting a slip of paper that says you’ve completed 200 hours of appropriate yoga curriculum and are now approved to teach a yoga class is like giving a 1st grader an MBA for graduating kindergarten. It doesn’t really work like that. Yoga is something that produces its effect when it is practiced consistently, and for a long period of time. It is also important to note that qualities such as enthusiasm and sincerity will amplify the effect of the practice. Using a similar analogy to illustrate this point: how much did you learn in the high school or college courses where you disliked the subject, course material, or instructor? We still all remember things from our favorite classes and teachers, and just like that, yoga has the same thing going on. If you show up to the mat every day, dreading it and dragging your ass through it, there is less of profound shift than if you are routinely looking forward to each moment of practice.
It’s this difference of perception that causes radical shifts in health of people who view life and its stressors as either A) a challenge to rise up for , or B) an unnecessary pain in the ass to struggle through. Because let’s face it – we all have this attitude towards many things. It’s no secret that we are excited about the things we enjoy doing and are pretty glum towards that which is a least favorite. One study showed exactly how this impacted the health of the average person – those that perceived stress as something that had a positive impact on health, ended up rating much higher in basic biomarkers of health such as blood pressure, cholesterol and heart rate variability. It was their perception that altered their biology. Unfortunately it works both ways – those that saw stress as something with negative health consequences ended up being at risk in various markers. What gives?! Again… it was their perception.
So we have something that perceives the outside world, and we give it a name and call it ‘us’. I call mine ‘Grant’ and I attach many different labels and categorizations to it. But, even before the labeling, it is a pure unconditioned state of being. Consciousness itself. This tricky thing called consciousness that our scientists today are still stumped in figuring out. What is it? Where did it come from? I’m not sure these answers are really worth philosophizing over – we are better off just admitting that we ARE conscious, and that our consciousness is what defines our reality. How does it define reality? Everything we see in our life is filtered through our perception. There’s that word again – perspective. It’s the lens we see through. It makes sense that when we are having a ‘bad’ day, we end up seeing all the ‘bad’ things in the world, right? And when you are in a good mood, a sunset is more captivating and beautiful. It is all a matter of this thing called perception, and knowing how we can affect it will lead us to living in a more natural state of being. It is something that yoga helps us with, due to how yoga influences our physiology, and the neurochemistry in our brain.
That leads us to what I really want to introduce, and its that the yogic practices that have been passed down and refined over many thousands of years were given to us by many very smart and very wise saints and sages of old. Simultaneously and important to note, they have been vetted out and approved by many of the great minds today. There is a broadening understanding in the medical community that there is a deeper thing going on behind the scenes. As difficult is it is for us to pinpoint what consciousness actually is, we are starting to see that there seems to be a clear mystery when it comes to the organizing force that beats our heart, keeps cell division happening at the rate of around 10,000 cells per second, and orients our head from our tail when we are developing in embryo. After all, what is telling a liver cell to be a liver cell, when they are all coming from the same undifferentiated stem cell source? What intelligent force is helping us do all of the incredibly complex tasks required to simply be alive?
Watch: What is Consciousness?
I don’t pretend to know all these answers. In fact, I do not think that they are possible to answer or understand intellectually. But I do know this – and it is that the process of yoga is really a practical method for aligning ourselves with this great force of life. After all, yoga just means union. It comes from the Sanskrit word yuj meaning ‘to yolk’ or ‘to unite’. With what? And how?!
Hopefully I’ve not lost you yet. Let’s bring it back to Earth and simplify as much as possible. There seems to be an energy, and organizing intelligence that is keeping enough stability in our lives to allow us to talk, to breathe, make a baby, and fight off an infection, all at the same time. From a scientific perspective it would appear that it is the same energy for me as it is for you. In fact, if we get down deep into the science of it all, it would appear that this energy seems to be underlying everything that exists. Call it whatever you want to call it, but this is our current best guess at what is there. Unfortunately, we don’t always see it this way and life tends to be a little more challenging as a result. Sometimes we feel like we are trapped, or alone, or too scared to act on the things that might benefit ourselves and others. Life seems to be difficult sometimes. I get it, I am human too and I experience this for sure. But one thing is certain – yoga has shown me many very grounded and practical ways to overcome this tendency to feel stuck. It is a methodology, or a technology much like a cell phone, that we can learn to use to get from point A to point B in life, without encountering too many roadblocks along the way. Once we really understand it all, we see that the roadblocks we encounter really are all coming from our own mind, our own consciousness, our own sense of self. The cool part is, the yogis have found all the shortcuts.
Yoga really is designed to condense life’s experiences into a practice that can give us peace and harmony with our existence. To has been created to unite us with the fundamental energy of life. We see this in children, who have not been imprinted by culture and society, and exhibit and abundant amount of curious, expansive, loving and joyous energy. They have flexible and open minds and a curious mind that just wants to explore. This is still possible, and exists as a seed in all beings. Yoga is the process of connecting back to this inner child, a yolk to our pure existential nature. It’s not something that is voodoo, or faraway, or that you need to go into a Himalayan cave and meditate to learn. It is a down-to-earth, practical method to unlock the secrets of our own consciousness. And hey, the worst that could happen is you get more flexible 😊
There you have it. I hope this post has been informative for you and I hope to hear from you all soon. If you have questions, please reach out. I aim to always make myself available for the space and time for anyone who is truly seeking. I see this new year as a wonderful opportunity to continue to open our minds and our hearts and let life to pour into us in new and creative ways. Please remember that yoga is not exclusive to anyone – if you can breathe, you can practice yoga. It doesn’t discriminate amongst any human being of any background, so the beautiful part of that is you don’t need to change anything in your life to practice! In fact, it will probably deepen our relationships to all of those things that we hold dear to us. Yoga is about making you, more You! Here’s to you, us, life, yoga, 2018… Help me to make this year the most expansive one yet!
Namaste, yogis 😊