Prepare to be Stressed

There are so many misconceptions about yoga, I've heard most of them and I'm not ashamed to say I held a fair number of them myself. But by far and large the most populated myth is that yoga is all about flexible people just relaxing and stretching.

Don't get me wrong, you can find classes that focus entirely on rest and relaxation, truly wonderful, much needed classes; but in the West the majority of yoga studios focus on a lively, fast-paced "cardio" version of Vinyasa or Ashtanga yoga. Why there is still such a widely held misconception I don't know, but I do think it is important to address if you are about to take your first yoga class, or perhaps if you've fallen into a rut with your current yoga practice.

Without even getting into the fact that the physical postures are only a tiny slither of a yoga practice, it is crucial to remember that yoga is about balance.

Literal balance (because yes, a fair amount of class is spent on 1 leg, or your hands or even your head), but more importantly balance of the body, balance of the emotions and balance of the mind. Finding that place where you are both flexible and strong, where you are calm and focused and where you are committed but unattached.

Why then, when we are trying to achieve a more peaceful, balanced state would we put ourselves under any level of stress? Why has the West developed such a love and yearning for the flows and fusions? Part of this, I'm sure, is down to our very nature. Life is so fast paced that we are conditioned from such a young age to "keep up", to never get left behind. We are reprimanded for being lazy when we're perceived to quiet or still and we are reminded that the first across the finishing post gets the gold. Yoga in the West has adapted to us, it gives us what we want whilst at the same time quietly nudging us toward what we need. You can walk into any good studio for a work out, and leave feeling like a different person; in a way that rarely happens after 60 mins on the treadmill.

Yoga helps us to understand that we can and often do benefit from a certain level of 'stress'. Without well-placed physical stress we cannot develop healthy muscles and joints. Yet, at the same time it opens our eyes to undue stress and it allows us, no, it encourages us, to back off, to breathe, to create space and calm. To find balance.

We come to our mats to practice under controlled stress. As our bodies physically open and strengthen those stresses change from the physical to the mental. We learn to stand on one leg, to trust our own bodies, and to breathe, and as we do so, we learn how to handle difficult situations without unnecessary discomfort during our day-to-day lives. I mean, if you can smile during Warrior III or Bound Half-Moon, then you can smile when you forgot to save your work and your PC crashed.

It's like learning to hold your breathe under water: at first it seems terrifying and all you can think about is clinging to those last few seconds of oxygen before you resurface. But practiced time and time again you start to enjoy the feeling of suspension, trusting that the emptiness and airlessness is only temporary and relishing in the moment of silence and stillness.

When I find myself gritting my teeth in class and wishing the pose to be over I bring myself back to that thought of stillness, back to the realization that those moments where I skirt the edge of my abilities - those are the moments when all the magic starts to happen. My body strengthens, my breath deepens and my mind relaxes.

And, just when you get attached to your the flow and fusion, when you feel comfortable in the heart of a room full of sweaty yogis, you are well advised to return to the yin. To find the quiet, deep relaxation, to take all that you have learnt from being upside-down inside and to sit with it while it bubbles over with thoughts and emotions and feelings that have been waiting for you. To apply your ability to breathe and to smile in twisted triangle pose, to the stuff that really matters, to you, to your heart.

To find balance.
To find peace.