“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves
must walk the path.” – Buddha
I read a lot of yoga blogs, probably too many. I live
in my head, and yoga blogs are a way to think intellectually about what I
“should” be practicing. One of the blogs I read most frequently is “linda’s yoga journey.” One of the issues she
often discusses is how to be on a “real” yoga path. I usually find myself
nodding along to her posts, thinking, “she is totally right., the way yoga has
hit mainstream America is barely recognizable as yoga. ‘Real’ yoga is something
different.” And then I realize I am the person she is describing, the one
talking the talk but not always walking the walk.
I do not make time for an asana practice everyday. I do not
make time for a meditation practice everyday. My meditation practice is often
in my car. Most days I take a few moments to sit in the morning, and I attend
classes on the weekends, but my practice is not as structured as it could be. I
can come up with all sorts of excuses as to why this is, but excuses are not
the point of this post.
There is no question that my path is to find a way to bring
yoga into daily living. Whether that means asana “At the Desk,”
meditations in the car, or even ways to recognize
and overcome vicarious trauma, yoga is not something we can only practice
in the Himalayan peaks. It has to be something we can bring to daily living.
But that means less time for the actual deepening of the practice. Sure, we can
go on yoga retreats and fill our yoga
buckets, but how do we bring these practices into daily life?
As the Buddha says in the quote above, “We ourselves must
walk the path.” There is no substitute for practice. But how can we balance the
need for practice with the need to get up in the morning and go about our daily
living? That path is not for everyone, but for those of us who know our path is
to find the balance, how do we do that?
On days I do not make time to practice, I feel guilty.
That’s not very yogic, now is it? But on days I take the time to practice, I
feel different. The sense of calm lasts a little bit longer. The ability to
respond rather than react is a little bit larger. Those moments come more often
the more time spent in practice. But too much time spent in practice means the
unread materials pile up and the deadlines get missed. And of course that
causes stress and anxiety of its own.
But the path can be both. I know it can. The true path is
learning to listen. Through yoga, we learn to listen to what we need. We
eventually learn to understand it as well. Some days, doing the work that is
piling up at the office is more yogic. It clears the space around us giving us
a space for clear thinking. Some days, no matter how high that pile has become,
we need to turn to the mat. Those are the days that no matter how much we try
to tackle the pile, unless we take some time away from it, there is no way we
can do it. Sound familiar?
But that still leaves the aching question – is this a “true”
path? Is the only true way to bring yoga into our lives to make time to
practice every single day at the same time? When the guilt is rising high, my
answer to this is sometimes yes. But the rest of the time, the time when I take
the time to reflect, I realize the answer is no.
A true path is in the intention we bring to it. Where is the
heart? And are we willing to walk the path ourselves? Are we willing to bring
our entire soul to it? When we have the intention, we can miss our mark
sometimes, but we always know we can return. We always remember that we can
come back to the path waiting within us.
And it is that intention that we bring to our daily lives. I
still get upset with people. I still lose my temper. I still feel anxiety. But
underneath those moments is a little voice reminding me it need not be that
way. And in those moments, sometimes my breath returns, and I laugh at the
situation. And sometimes it does not, and I leave disgruntled and guilty. And
after a decade of this practice, countless hours in meditation and on the mat,
and countless hours reading yoga blogs about
different paths, something has finally clicked.
Those moments are the true path. All of them. When our paths
are between the modern world and the yoga mountains, finding the bridge is the
path. And we are going to have many, many moments on both sides of that bridge.
But with the intention to continuously come back, we are on a true path . . .
even if we miss a day or two on the mat. It may not look like a traditional yoga path, but it is what allows us to be true to our own hearts.
How does your path look? Where is your intention?
Namaste!
©
Rebecca Stahl 2012, all rights reserved.
I love your blog, Rebecca! Beautifully written. Thank you <3
ReplyDeleteNamaste from Norway
Katrine Legg Hauger, mom, alchemist healer and lawyer
Thanks! I appreciate it.
Deleteoh my! thanks for the link love!
ReplyDeletebut don't think for a minute that just because you get mad, upset, whatever, that's not the "real" yoga path.
will always remember what I heard Jack Kornfield say at Spirit Rock -- that if someone thinks that a person on the yoga or spiritual path can't ever get angry or upset, then that person has a kindergarten view of spirituality.
metta!
Thanks, Linda. That is always a wonderful reminder!
Delete