Yoga raises more questions than it answers.
Why can’t I put my foot behind my head yet?
Why am I scared
of inversions?
How do I align my hips in half moon?
What is the point of Ujjayi breath?
Why do get angry in Half Pigeon?
It can be irritating and unnerving, especially in a society
where we are expected to be, and are rewarded for being, decisive, knowledgeable
and forthright.
However, when we pause
and we begin to practice within those questions our practice grows. Instead of
forcing a pose, when we ask what’s going on and take the time to breathe and be
okay with not really knowing, something magic happens and we find that it gets
easier and before we know it we’re in a place we never expected to be.
Similarly, off the mat, when we begin to live the questions
we begin to investigate ourselves and we get to know ourselves on a deeper,
more authentic level.
Remember the last time you met someone new, perhaps a first
date or a job interview – those times are all filled with questions. Often the
true answers don’t come until much later when you really experience that
person, that relationship, that job. You
find the things you love over time, the quirks, the annoying habits that you’d
be lost without, the short cuts and organization you need.
In the same way, life unfolds itself slowly to us, but for
some reason we stop asking the questions. We start to believe we know it all.
Just for today allow yourself to challenge that: ask every question, live every question. Stop preempting
the answer, be safe in the knowledge that it will come in time, but for now
investigate, experiment and play in the unknown.
As Deepak Chopra says “Accept what you do not know and what
you do not know you do not know”. Breathe into those spaces, and in that place
of intrigue, of mystery, of magic, find the fullness of life. Return to your
childlike innocence where the wonder and the wild things are, the places where
everything is new, surprising and fantastic. Let go of the “I know” of the ego
and be okay with the “I wonder”. In this place … in the questions … truly anything is possible
