I used to go for an early morning yoga class, leaving home whilst the streetlights were still on, sharing the road with only the milkmen. I would spend hours practising Ashtanga yoga in a large, quiet room. The only sound was the sound of breathing. But by the time I stepped out of the room, morning rush hour traffic would had begun. I would be starving, and after the silence of the yoga room, the car horns would be extra loud. It was a struggle not to get annoyed and irritable. I would often joke that this is when my yoga practice would actually begin.
Looking back, I realize the importance of that ‘joke’ – the greatest gift of yoga is not what we do on the mat, but what we take with us off the mat. There is no point going for early morning yoga practice if you don’t find peace and stillness through the rest of the day. There is no point balancing on one leg if you can’t find balance in the rest of your life. Doing a perfect headstand adds no value to your life unless it is helping to make you calmer, happier and more able to deal with the ups and downs that life presents to you.
Now you might be thinking (and perhaps sniggering a little) that a headstand can’t possibly make you a calmer person. No judgment from my side if you are, because I have done a fair amount of sniggering myself. But through the steady practice of yoga over many years, the truth of this statement has been proven to me. So how does yoga make you a calmer person?
Living in the moment
When you are in a headstand (or any other balancing asana), you have to live in the moment. If you start to think about what you are going to have for breakfast and wondering if there is any cheese in the fridge for the omelette you want to make, you will lose your balance and fall. So just for the short time that you are balanced on your head, you find yourself fully in the moment.
There are other elements of the asana practice that cultivate awareness and force you to be in the present moment. Pain is one of them. When we stretch our muscles and we begin to feel pain, it gets our attention. You can’t say ouch and be thinking of cheese at the same time. Alignment of the bones, movement between asanas , ( vinyasa ) and your gaze points ( dristi ), all serve to bring you into the present moment.
So, why is living in the present so important for a calm mind? Dreaming about the future and feeling nostalgic about the past is fun. When it’s positive, it certainly is, but often our thoughts are negative. Even nostalgia can be negative, as we begin to yearn for those times instead of being happy in the moment. These thoughts, dreams about the future, fears from the past, all clutter the mind and cause stress. The straightest road to peace is to stay exactly where you are, in the present.
Now is not then
The funny thing about yoga is that no day is the same. Some days you feel strong, and others you don’t. Some days you can balance with ease and other days you feel like you are going to fall on your face. Some days you can get into a difficult asana with ease and then it slips away from you.
What I have learned over the years is that, “Now is not then.” This knowledge allows you to stop questioning, to let go and to accept.
This theory applies in other ways as well. Just because you almost fell doing a balancing pose yesterday doesn’t mean you won’t be able to do it today. This realization allows you to let go of limitations and fears. So you tripped on your high heels and spilled wine all over yourself at the last party you went to; that doesn’t mean you are going to do the same thing on your next date. So instead of worrying, chill out and paint your nails.
Equanimity
In yoga practice we do some things that feel wonderful and draw energy into the body and relax the mind. We also do things that are painful and sometimes scary. We still practice both, accepting pain and pleasure as two sides of the same coin. Sometimes pain turns to pleasure and also the reverse. Through this knowledge we learn to practice Upeksha or equanimity. We accept pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, achievement and failure.
It’s like being tossed in an ocean, some days you are up and some days down. As Swami Satchidananda often said, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf!”
