Do you ever experience the sensation of a need to adapt to your changing environment?
Or a need to improve yourself in some ambiguous way?
Or maybe there's something about yourself that just makes you uncomfortable.
Something you wish you could change.
Asana means to sit.
It means a posture that brings comfort,
Ease,
Steadiness.
Swami Satchidananda said,
Any pose that brings this comfort and steadiness is an asana.
If you can achieve one pose,
That is enough.
We turn to yoga asana to find a reflection of the way we move through life.
It's a mirror we can sit with that shows us every side and every angle of who we are.
The good,
The bad,
The pretty,
The ugly,
The comfortable,
The uncomfortable.
Sitting in asana,
In steadiness,
Forces us to sit with all those parts of ourselves.
The parts that we love and the parts that maybe make us a little uncomfortable.
And that reflection isn't to make us analyze ourselves and find things to redefine about ourselves,
But we can choose to turn toward and sit with those things that make us uncomfortable.
Those things we want to run from,
Hide from,
Ignore.
And maybe by facing them and embracing them,
You can return to your true you.
The one that's been there all along.
Maybe by facing the wholeness of who we are,
We can sit more comfortably with who we are.
If you haven't already,
Go ahead and find a comfortable position.
You can be seated or laying down.
Something that is comfortable and sustainable for you.
Most important thing,
Simply being that your spine is long and neutral.
If you choose to sit,
Maybe sit up on something to give your spine a little bit more space.
And then let yourself settle in.
Let the weight of your body grow heavy and sink down into whatever it is that supports you.
Let your gaze either rest on a vague point in the distance or close all the way down if that's comfortable for you.
Then let your awareness,
Let your attention rest on the normal,
Natural rhythm and flow of your breath.
Simply notice how it feels.
Poses and postures in yoga don't have to be complicated.
Really all the poses we practice in yoga asana are to lead us to one pose.
One soul peak pose.
And that's a seat.
Asana itself translates as to sit.
The poses are merely a means to get into our body.
To release the pent up energy and to sit.
To sit in stillness.
To sit in silence.
To rest in a place of calm mind,
Calm body.
To rest in a space of comfort.
Notice if you are comfortable now.
Right here,
Resting wherever it is you've chosen to rest.
Are you completely comfortable?
If this pose,
If this position isn't comfortable for you,
I invite you to adjust it.
Adapt it to make it more comforting,
More welcoming,
More restful.
As you adapt,
As you adjust,
And as you settle back in,
Notice again if you're comfortable.
And if you are,
Simply focus on maintaining this position.
As you focus on maintaining this position,
Do you notice if your mind is racing?
Are you holding your breath?
Are you fidgeting?
Are you holding back the urge to speak?
Caught up in thinking about yesterday?
Worried about what you have to do tonight?
Tomorrow?
If any one of those things is true,
Congratulations.
You're normal.
You're human.
Because even though asana is about sitting,
Is about comfort,
Sometimes the most comfortable poses are the most challenging.
They force us to be with ourselves,
With just ourselves,
And nothing else to distract us.
So continue to focus on simply maintaining this position.
Don't try to freeze time or your mind.
Simply focus on being here,
Now.
Simply try to be with yourself,
To bear witness to you as you happen here and now.
Jessamyn Stanley said in her book,
Yoke,
Breathing your way into the present moment is the whole function of yoga postures.
The single purpose of every posture is to bear witness to your fidgets and your held breaths and the cacophony of noise echoing in your mind.
Sometimes the most comfortable poses are the most challenging.
As yoga asana forces us to sit with the discomfort.
Yoga asana is sitting with the discomfort.
It's sitting with all of our quirks and perceived shortcomings.
All the ones that we want to ignore or stuff down because of the way we were raised,
The culture we grew up in,
What the world has told us is right and wrong.
If you can achieve one pose,
That is enough.
If you're listening to this,
You're resting in a pose,
You have a practice that is enough for all the fidgets,
Swirling thoughts,
The held breaths,
The thoughts about yesterday and the worries for tomorrow.
Your practice is enough.
You are enough without a need to change you,
Without a need to redefine who you are.
Focus on your you.
Focus on the whole full version of you that's already there,
That has always been there.
Rest now with yourself.
Rest in the fullness and wholeness of who you are.
As you do,
As you notice your fidgets and your wondering thoughts,
Let any judgment go.
Don't try to change your thoughts or stop your fidgets.
Simply let yourself be with them.
Let yourself rest with you in all that you are,
Just as you are.
Feel free to stay here as long as you like,
As long as you are able.
And you can always come back to this practice when you need a moment of recentering,
Reminding yourself and remembering who you are in your wholeness and your fullness.
If you need to move on into the rest of your day now,
Begin to draw your attention back to your breath,
Back to noticing your own normal,
Natural wholeness and fullness of your inhales to your exhales,
Your exhales to your inhales.
And bring both of your hands to your heart.
Stack one hand on top of the other.
I invite you to join me in one single OM.
You can join audibly or silently.
OM is considered a sacred sound of the universe.
It's the sound of creation,
Sustenance,
Dissolution,
The sound of beginning,
Middle,
End,
Mind,
Body,
Soul.
It is the sound of wholeness and completion.
So follow your breath out,
Make space,
Inhale whole and full.
OM.
Thank you so much for joining this practice.
Until next time.
