Glow babe
Tag: mind
No rush
Yogi, take the necessary time to observe and understand what is going on in your body when practicing. It’s not just your body doing asanas, your mind has a job too. Yep, understanding what’s going on in your mind is crucial too. You just can’t separate it, body and mind go together. We should always practice mindful, feeling, observing, understanding.
I sometimes recognize, that my practice is just one asana after the other, while my mind is somewhere else. Time to connect. Time to go internal. I usually close my eyes for a moment, just listening to my breath, before restarting my practice. Activate my bandhas, deepen my breath, establish a strong drishti.
Take your time, rushing around and not paying attention will just get you tired, and make you more exposed to injure yourself, and also create mental madness. Your practice is a journey and so is each pose. You have to learn from it. Mastering a posture doesn’t mean anything if you haven’t learned from it. The physical level is quite obvious, but you might also be confronted with your weaknesses on a mental and emotional level.
Practicing yoga means digging into yourself, facing your true self and work on that changing process. Develop your body and mind, work on your flexibility on all levels. Create prana, learn about yourself. Don’t be afraid to change. It’s crucial to develop on each level. Enjoy the beautiful journey and take your time yogi!
Photos by Dee Gandhi, www.AlokaCreative.com
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“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
― Lao Tzu
My practice at the moment is quite difficult. I couldn’t practice for some weeks and before being even back on the mat, I caught a terrible cold. Impossible to breathe properly, not to even think about any physical strain.
I had to step back, once again and restarted my practice with some restorative and yin yoga. Careful and soft, listening to my body even more, only doing what felt good without challenging my sick body. Finding my strength in accepting a different practice, accepting to go slow, accepting to struggle.
I’m not injured, nothing major, but anyhow, sometimes it’s tough to see ourselves rather stepping back than moving forward. Hello ego!
It’s time to cultivate the courage to enjoy who I am. Each moment. With all the limitations, all the highs. It’s time to enjoy. I turned different music on for my practice. I start playing, just moving with the music, without thinking. Feeling, listening, playing, celebrating the slowness, getting soft. Interestingly, by playing, you’ll remember what’s important. It’s not about permanent progress, not about always getting better. It’s about doing good for your body and mind. Learning who you are. Stop holding, learn to let go. In my case, particularly let go of expectations. That’s it, that simple. Do good to yourself. You’ll improve anyhow, maybe much more as you can imagine…
Learnings from the mat
Let Go
What happens on the mat stays on the mat? Nope. We practice asanas, but we also practice acceptance, we practice letting go. We practice with our body, but we also practice to go internal. As body and mind work together, all physical work has a mental effect too. Like this moment, when all of a sudden or mind gets empty, we’re getting soft while keeping full stability within an asana and with this, all tension releases. It’s working the same way off the mat.
Love
When you practice yoga, it’s about you. There’s no competition. Is your neighbors’ acrobatics and surreal flexibility sparkling onto your mat? Well, that’s not about you. Look at it if you can’t resist, be happy about the show and go back to yourself. It doesn’t say anything about you. Avoid mirrors. Go internal and feel your body. Let yourself be guided by the voice of the teacher and by the aligning hands. Go internal and learn. It’s about you. It’s about accepting yourself with all your strengths, with all your limitations that moment. It’s called love.
Independence off the mat
On the mat you learn to be yourself. Off the mat it’s about integrating these learnings. Do you know this feeling of happiness compared with a huge uncertainness, when you’ve got something new? New within, new outside, it doesn’t matter. Instead of wearing it with a proud smile, all of a sudden we turn into a shy something. The self confident woman ask herself, did I do this right? But what the hell is right? Who is judging? Whatever is new that moment belongs to you. Is part of you, mirrors what that moment is inside of you. No matter if we’re talking about a blood-red lipstick or a new haircut. No matter if it’s about a new pair of fancy leggings or a new tattoo. Even changes that are internal count. They make us strong and same time sometimes uncertain and vulnerable when we show them first time.
Love and let go
Remember what you’re learning on the mat. It’s about you. Free yourself from dependency. Why is it so important what others think? Of course you’re flattered when your surrounding is sending kudos. Wow, you’re looking amazing! You look so happy! Awesome how you’re shining! We don’t want to hear things like, oh, that’s flashy… can you remove that?
Love and let go
Why so thin-skinned? Yeah, it’s all about harmony, isn’t it? It’s so much easier to go with the flow. Inconspicuous. Accepted. Belong to a group. This is where you feed your self confidence from. Get rid of it! It’s a false conclusion, as it only shows how your vis-à-vis operates. It’s not about you!
Maybe your friend is jealous. Maybe simply overstrained. Maybe it’s just not her or his taste. Maybe you developed into a certain direction, which is a different journey. Endless options. And finally the opinion or even judgement about your new whatever, is telling you something about that person, not about you. The more you provoke, the more you learn about that person.
Of course, there are others. Those that are on a similar path. Recently someone told me, your tattoos are so YOU. I loved that. It was not about like or dislike, this person looked at ME, without judging.
My conclusion: do what you want. Be YOU. It’s your story, your journey, your life. If it feels good, it is good. Trust yourself. Aim true. Connect with yourself, connect with your breath, as you do it on the mat. If any uncertainty arises: Love and let go. On the mat, off the mat.
“I don’t want to see your body doing asanas. I want to see your mind doing yoga.”
What drives you? Wanna reach a certain posture? Get ‘better’? Babe, honestly, that’s not what yoga is about. Who cares if you can do Garbha Pindasana? Does it change who you are, if you can bind in Marichyasana D? Is it important? Nope. It’s just your ego complaining and trying to convince you that you’re not good enough. Your ego telling you, when you can do this posture, you’ll be happy.
Yoga is not just physically. Be prepared to struggle and questioning yourself. From time to time you might think, that you’re slipping back into your old story. But this is not even possible, as you have changed, there is no back! There might be battles with your thoughts and old demons – yep, this is exactly the way to grow.
Some time ago I wrote a post about my learning that stiffness is rather in my mind than in my body – when I reached Kurmasana and Supta Kurmasana. I was not aiming to go into this posture, surprisingly I just did it, with some adjustments from my teacher. Of course it felt amazing and I was so happy I can do it (hello ego!), because it was such a surprise. But you know what? It’s not important, a natural development, just this.
Allow your mind doing yoga. Quieten your ego for a while and be happy without a reason. Allow your body to move and improve in its own pace, without forcing anything. Let it happen. Breathe through your practice without expectations. Stop the ego talk and start riding the flow. Enjoy your practice. Without any additional effort, your body will change, your flow will get more fluent and easy, your breath deeper. Allow yourself to be yourself, exactly where you are in that precious moment.
Mind stiff, not body.
Kurmasana and Supta Kurmasana – I tried them long ago and wondered how this should be ever possible. It felt as if my arms were close to break! Meaning most times, I skipped them or tried half-assed, of course without any effort.
Some weeks ago, my teacher pushed my shoulders down, closed the gap between arms and legs and I could walk my feet forward. No pain at all. Ups. So simple?
Next step, Supta Kurmasana. Turn the arms, palms face up, a strap to help, walk the feet in, cross and head down on the mat. Ups. Here we go. Easy.
What? Hold on! Easy? Ok, my feet should be behind my head for full posture in Supta, but hell, I’m quite close! And babe, this is an excellent example of how my mind stopped me, while my body can do. My teacher showed my body how to go into the posture, my mind in awe-stricken silence.
Let’s allow our bodies to work and send our minds into a well deserved break while practicing!
Cleansing through asanas
I felt quite bad today — sad, worrying and a headache was trying to tempt me to just lay down on the sofa. My mat seemed far away, when I told myself, I’ll feel much better after practicing. So I did. Went to my mat, without any expectations.
I turned slow and peaceful music on. Closed my eyes when warming myself up. In samasthiti I started my Ujjayi breath, very intense and I kept this during the full practice. It was loud and deep and felt like a storm going through my body. It even deepened some asanas. And yes, practice felt so good and not just my body said thank you, also my mind is in a much better mood now!
My breath cleaned me. My breath took all that shit out of me, that put me down. My inner smile is back.
This kind of intensifying asana practice also works when being in a happy mood — you can even push more. Stay a bit longer in each asana, close your eyes and go into your feelings. You may enjoy some and others better let go. So a rather aware inner tidying up. Let go of anything that doesn’t serve you any longer and enjoy.
Let your body work and your mind will follow.
Pay off
Discipline. Persistence. Trust. Faith. Practice. 6 days a week. It works.
Our bodies are very different – what’s easy for you might be impossible for someone else. Or the other way around. Age is another barrier, as it’s much harder to gain strength, overcome stiffness and convince our bodies of new options. Plus all of a sudden, there’s fear. The older we get, the more.
So it’s not just the body. The mind has to support a lot. No room for evil thoughts, but a can do approach. No limits. It just takes its time.
Headstand is quite easy for a lot of people. Some need a bit more practice. It took me about 8 months to be able to do free headstand, without the wall or any other support. Progress in baby steps. And finally, I was there. Tears were running over my face. I did it. It felt so easy…
Never give up. Do what you want to do. Even if it takes ages. It’s so worth it!
Self care
Practice steadiness and ease. Inner strength, but also soothing and sweet. How can this work? My view: it’s all about being kind to my body, instead of stressing it. Doing my best, challenging body and mind, by fully respecting my limitations that day, that moment. Listening to my body. Understanding if it’s just laziness, that makes the sofa calling me or my body sending signals on what is good or bad for me in that moment. Also fading out the self talk my mind is confusing me with. Gently. Accepting. Yes, tenderly.
Pushing and pulling seems rather violent and works the opposite direction, it takes us farther from ourselves. It is this deep connection with ourselves, our centre, that cultivates a confidence, which makes our practice and our lives magical and leaves us deeply touched and happy.
Care for yourself.
Transformation
Recognize
the moment, when you get off your clothes
and jump into your yoga pants.
Let the transformation start.
Recognize
how your mind releases immediately,
the skin in your face get smooth,
your jaw relaxes.
Recognize
your body waking up,
your muscles silently vibrating.
Recognize
your breath and deepen it,
become mindful.
Feel your happiness,
on your way to the mat.
TUNEin:YOGA 