Yoga Thoughts on Trusting the Practice to Blossom.

One of my favorite parts of being a mother is reading aloud to my children. While I enjoyed the picture-book stage, our shift into “chapter books” transformed our nightly routine into a part of the day that none of us want to miss. Our selections are all over the map. We’ve devoured classics such as The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and more recent novels such as JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series. We’ve read a few duds, but we’ve also had our fair share of pleasant surprises.

When I look back, the six months we spent reading CS Lewis’s Narnia series is at the top of our “hit parade.” These books were among my favorites growing up. I read them over and over. I vividly remember pulling them back out when I started to grapple with my spirituality after a particularly moving youth group retreat when I was in high school. Along with Richard Bach, they were powerfully formative in my early understandings of faith.

Given the deep impact they had on me, I was worried that we were pushing it a bit when we embarked on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when our youngest was only 5 years old. In fact, the only reason we started them was that I’d recently retrieved my old box-set from my parents’ house and the kids were very excited to read some of “Mommy’s books.” I needn’t have been concerned, however. Even to the very young, CS Lewis’ stories are captivating.

Though I suspect none of my children were old enough to recognize the Christian allegories filling the books, I do think the life messages were as clear to my kids as the drama and excitement of the plots were. Certainly, they did not understand that the author created Aslan as a Christ figure, or that the White Witch was tempting Edmund much the way the devil tempted Jesus during his 40 days in the wilderness. But I am confident that they all understood the pure love that Aslan expressed for the Pevensie children when he volunteered to die to save them. And I can say without hesitation that they all understood the cold, evil of the White Witch’s selfish love of power. The beauty of loving all creatures, even those who don’t look like you (for instance a beaver or a  faun), was clear as day even to my five-year-old. And I know that each came away inspired to wonder about their own hidden gifts and talents waiting to blossom in their lives.

My point is simple. Even at the most basic level, a work of great depth can touch a person in a meaningful way.

Which brings me to a debate that is currently (and perhaps perpetually) raging in the world of American yoga. Perhaps you saw the recent article in the New York Times on Tara Stiles (click here to read it)? She is a yoga teacher in Manhattan who, according to the author of the article, teaches only the physical part of the practice. The article was peppered with criticism. One person went so far as to accuse Ms. Stiles of “heresy,” in essence saying that she was betraying the practice by sharing only one part of it. In a nutshell, this is the great American yoga debate. Are we dishonoring the practice with our “western” emphasis on the physical benefits of asana? Can we really say that people who attend a yoga class once a week are actually practicing yoga? Or are they simply taking an exercise class?

Here I go out onto a limb. Promise to catch me if it breaks?

I was once one of those people who attended a yoga class once a week. I dedicated 90 precious minutes on Monday mornings to moving and breathing on my mat. I signed up for this class for purely physical reasons. I had spent the previous five years gestating, birthing and nursing three children. Along the way, not surprisingly, my body had morphed into something I no longer recognized. While I didn’t have any delusions that I’d regain my pre-motherhood body, I did want to walk through life feeling good about myself again. Honestly, it’s possible I even wanted to turn a head or two again — when my precious, eye-catching babies weren’t with me.

My focus on the physical gifts of yoga lasted about six weeks. While I continued to adore my newly toned muscles and I didn’t mind that my torso was getting trimmer by the week, what I really treasured about my Monday mornings was how peaceful, centered and energized I felt during and just after my yoga class. I’ve exercised all my life, but nothing I’d tried before left me feeling like this. Somehow, I knew I’d stumbled upon something a lot more powerful than another exercise class. I didn’t know a darn thing about yoga. I didn’t have a teacher who spent 15 minutes before class teaching yoga philosophy. Yet, at its most basic, rudimentary level, yoga had touched me in a very meaningful way.

In  fact, yoga touched me so deeply that I’ve dedicated the last 10 years to the practice — the last five to sharing the practice with others. Some of my students come for the physical. Others come overflowing with questions, ideas and thoughts about yoga’s philosophy, morals and life style. Sometimes I open my classes with a lesson on one of the other seven limbs of yoga. Always I close class with a few words chosen to help my students carry yoga with them off their mats and into their day.

It is my experience and belief that, given the chance, yoga somehow reaches everyone who tries it. Just as a yoga posture can be modified to meet every body where it is right now, the greater practice of yoga will meet every person where they are. For some, a little time focused inward is what they need and what they can manage. For others, that little bit of inward time draws them in “all the way” and they embrace the whole “shebang.” The depth of someone’s practice can’t be pushed any more than the depth of an asana can be pushed.

As I shared CS Lewis’ rich, meaningful books with my children, so I share yoga with my students. It’s all there, in countless layers. Some students will focus on the asana the way my children were swept away by the plots of the Narnia stories. As my children understood at some level the moral messages of Lewis’ books, I believe all of my students will come away somehow touched by the life gifts of the practice. Some will go deeper – on their own or with me. My work is to have faith in the yoga itself to carry people onward in their practices as they are ready. When I get to witness a practice blossoming, it is as thrilling for me as it was to find my 13-year-old pulling The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe off the shelf for another (certainly more nuanced) read. 

Namaste,
Amy
www.yogawithspirit.com
Become a fan of “Yoga Thoughts” on Facebook!