Where Yoga Begins

You're walking down a city street - you pass a yoga studio with a large window. Inside you see bodies creating shapes (all similar, but each unique), and something compels you to take a second, longer glance. You feel a powerful energy radiating from these bodies in these shapes. In this instant you resonate; a connection to these strangers. Their contentment, their inward focus, their peace and most of all their pure joy is perfectly illuminated to you on some level. This moment is where yoga begins.

When we step onto our mats we are thrust into an intimate dialog with our being. A class begins and the instructor gives cues. Even if we aren't totally certain what it means to "root the pelvis," or "melt the heart" we are moving and as a result - our bodies respond. "Wait a minute, hold on....what did you say???" These are the common phrases we think to ourselves but rarely express to our teacher. Yet somehow we make it through the class, sweaty and sometimes tired. However....what's that??? Why this is new. We may feel more fluid and more comfortable in our bodies. We thought we were going to stretch and that sounded easy enough - who knew these shapes would be so challenging to create? Overtime we pass this place and find a new opportunity. After a time of dedicated practice we are able to actually observe our breath in a challenging pose, or we begin to grasp what it means to melt the heart. We have expanded ourselves. Through the challenge of these shapes we've broken down by admitting - I don't get this and managed to begin at a relatively comfortable starting point. To begin where things are available and from that access point we grow stronger in body, and in our mind's ability to comprehend the invitation of our teacher. When you create a yoga pose you express yourself and this takes an enormous amount of inner strength and courage that begins with a soft heart. You soften your heart to accept your entry into something familiar, but deeply challenging....this is the act of beginning, accepting what is greeting you on your mat.

I remember being pulled like a magnet to yoga in 2000. I was living in Boston and there was a yoga studio on every corner. I couldn't afford to take the classes, but I did purchase a mat and a book. For four months I studied that book and made feeble attempts at postures on my mat. The amazing outcome was that, despite my ignorance about this revered, time-tested science, I felt great. I really didn't know what I was doing - but it seemed to enhance my well-being in a way I had never experienced from running, weight-lifting or even my beloved, downhill slalom racing. It was an illumination, a connection beyond anything I had ever known. The sensation was similar to that of falling in love. But this time I was falling in love with myself. I started to really care for myself. Cooking, cleaning and grooming myself with awareness of what felt affirming. I let go of bad habits like occasional smoking, staying up late, making long-distance phone calls to ex-boyfriends and avoiding new boyfriends offering old bad habits. I woke up early on weekends simply to enjoy the sunshine, and the breath in my warm body.

This remedial practice had offered me a glimpse of a more enlightened place of being. Although I hadn't experienced this feeling before it was somehow familiar. It felt like moments I would take for myself to stretch after sitting to write for long hours. Or the satisfaction achieved after completing a project of beauty like a drawing, a well-written story or learning a new song. Because all these works such as art, music and yoga are works of the heart. Brave humans are magnetized toward contemplative arts, because we crave an expanded heart space; compassion and love. Maybe it is because our heart chakra resides beneath the sternum and the amount of breath necessary to sing or practice yoga opens this energetic body? Whatever the case I couldn't get enough. I started to realize that a dedicated practice improved my ability to be compassionate and create healthy boundaries. Friends in my life noticed a change. I was no longer interested in going to clubs or bars, because it seemed to somehow derail my new found self-care routine.

Today I have a baby boy, August, and his presence convinces me that joy is our birth-right. He will sometimes awake with a wet diaper and an empty belly. Yet I stand above him and he turns up the corners of his mouth and smiles his gummy smile with his mouth, eyes and his entire body. I see him work hard throughout the day to use his hands, fingers, spine and head and he is filled with light - his big, blue eyes sparkling even in the face of a challenge. Having the honor to observe his light and purity reminds me that we all begin this way. We are connected to a current of light that literally illuminates our longest spine, our most radiant smile and our most compassionate heart. Yoga is the bridge that links us to this birth-right of joy. That moment of feeling your body create a yogic shape breathe with your heart and know from a deep place that your pose is perfect. Inhale and exhale into a warm, expanded heart. Step onto the bridge and walk toward your birth-right; begin and return often.

Namaste
(From the light in me to the light in you)
Maren