Meditation in movement
Your yoga practice can be a moving meditation as well. You can use the essence of meditation and watch your practice and what is happening instead of trying to make things or rather poses happen. If energy is allowed to flow freely there is a sense of calmness and effortlessness.
All too often I notice people practicing yoga simply as an extension of their fitness regime, a way to try to mold their body into a certain form. Yoga is all about creating flow within and allowing everything to come back into harmony, body, mind, and soul. The ego-mind has a different agenda, it wants what it thinks it can controll and manipulate in a way that gives it power. When the ego enters the realm of yoga we find rivalry, competition, and accomplishments. Your yoga practice can move you out of your comfort zone, make you stronger, more flexible, but it will happen in a way that suits your individual nature. Your body may not be built to hang out in a one-handed handstand or it may be built for it. You may end up balancing easily or have a hard time with standing postures that need balance. A consistent yoga practice will bring changes in a way that is balanced, if you are strong and lack flexibility, over time your flexibility will grow. If you have no strength but are overly flexible, you will become stronger and you may lose some flexibility but gain a standing. A meditative yoga practice creates healthy changes. A mind driven practice can bring you a feeling of accomplishment. Have you ever noticed how fleeting that feeling is?
Yoga can be part of your life experience if your inner authority guides you towards it and you can keep watching, unbiased and simply notice how you feel that day, what thoughts a certain pose evokes, what physical sensations you experience and this furthers the awareness of your Self and others.
Is your yoga practice a meditative practice for you?
Image thanks to Awan Yasser via unsplash.com
