Yoga and it’s lessons are inseparable from our lives. And here are my favourite top 3 connections:
1. “Doing” something necessitates “undoing” of something else.
When one muscle contracts the other one relaxes.
Remember every action has a reaction. But when we choose to do something, we are focused on the “doing” aspect while remaining unconscious to its opposite reaction, which we are “undoing”. But for every “doing” there has to be an “undoing”, because that’s the inevitable opposite reaction. The question is how do we train ourselves to notice what is it that we are “undoing”?
2. Body awareness is the foundational step towards self awareness.
We breath 26,000 times a day and yet remain unaware of our own breath.
Body awareness is not just part of increasing self-awareness, but its the gate-way to it. For every thought that we have, there is a physiological reaction in our body. Tensed shoulders while being over-cautious or long breaths when we are focused. For all those on a journey towards living or finding their soul purpose a good place to start is to build body awareness. Being fully present to our own bodies, begins by learning to slow down. And then we learn to engage our senses in multitude ways. For example observing ourselves with the vision of our eyes is different from observing ourselves through the touch of our breath that caresses our organs. Quoting Oscar Wilde “Nothing can cure the senses but the soul, just as nothing can cure the soul but the senses”.
3. Make a shift from solving problems to strengthening foundations.
You can not treat weak knees, by focusing on the knees. The legs and thighs have to be strengthened.
Finding solutions to a problem, keeps us in the cycle of problem-solving throughout our lives. Instead if we take a hard look at the foundation, we will come out of the mire of jumping from one problem to another. When foundations are weak, the structure is bound to be faulty. To solve not just the visible problem, but to proactively handle anything else that may show up, working ground-up is crucial. A tree needs to be nourished only at the roots to tend to each branch. A physical entity’s foundation are its values and needs, which when strengthened act like an auto-sprinkler system.
Great thought provoking article. We lose touch with ourselves. We think we need to worry about losing touch with reality in this world of virtual contact. But its worse, we lose touch with our own self, our bodies. Subtle signs that can tell us about our health, our balance, our well being are ignored and we depend on easily available drugs and supplements to keep going, when all that is needed is to love our bodies and listen to it, to proactively stay healthy as much as possible. Thanks for the reminder.