As modern human beings we generally try to control everything, this includes every aspect of ourselves. Though an investigation into Yoga quickly shows that all of life is the movement of it’s intelligence and energy. Life works better when it can flow without impediment, but like constricting a hose pipe, our attempt to over control this, blocks its flow.
The Hatha Yoga practice is a surrender into this flow, right from the breath at the beginning of a practice, through to a surrender in meditation, into lifes own inherent joy which arises simply from the fact of its existence in the state of Yoga itself. Simply practicing Asana and Pranayama can lead to an explosion of new energy.
Unfortunately we live in a world which continues to emphasize control, everything from politics, advertising and religion through to social media and entertainment feeds us information on how it should be. Even in Hatha Yoga, think of all those workshops where they obsess over the idea of perfect alignment of a couple of postures for a couple of hours…
Even with the body we are holding on most of the time, our tensions are the habitual response of anticipation of what’s going to occur, quite often due to previous experience. With our minds we have been taught to fear the unknown, to be over prepared for future moments, uncertainties.
However, think of those who have creative breakthroughs, who discover something new, they are approaching the moment with an openness that allows the new idea to appear. Its in the moments of deep relaxation, play, gentle trance states, that these peoples creative insights or outpourings happen.
How often have you tried yourself to find a solution to something, or remember a fact, or a name, only to find it appear later on, or in the middle of the night, when you aren’t trying.
How often have you faced a problem, given up and suddenly the solution appears.
This is like getting out of the way of life’s flow, allowing it, in its profound intelligence, its infinite energy to create and express itself moment after moment. It moves on its own anyway, all the time. I’ve often heard people use the term ” thy will, not my will”
If we let go of the ideas that define body, mind, our very sense of self, reality, We find that we can be much more than what we expected, that we can grow or evolve beyond what we have been, that life can be much more than what we ever anticipated. That we haven’t limited it by the old ideas based on what we have experienced of inherited.
Can you step into each moment fully relaxed, open without expectation or projections? How many times a day can you let go?
How often can you not start to plan, tense, react, respond… and instead watch, feel, experience each moments unfoldment, our unfoldment as life’s endless expression and delight.
