By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed
Once again, the Christmas
season is in full swing. This beautiful season brings with it a sense of
lighthearted festiveness, as well as an underlying hope for the redemption of us
and for our communities at large. According to many theologians, hope, faith
and charity are the essential three virtues of Christmas. Christians believe
that with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth any personal missteps they may have
taken are rectified within the eyes of God. This deep sense of hopefulness
keeps the heart and mind focused on the many blessings that surround us.
In terms of practicing
Yoga or teaching classes, maintaining a strong sense of hopefulness is critical
to making progress on this ancient spiritual path. Additionally, by having
faith that a Yoga practice will bear fruit in our lives, most of us are much
more willing to invest the time and energy necessary to truly make progress on
this ancient path. As the founder of Ashtanga Yoga, Shri K. Patthabi Jois, so
succinctly stated, "Do your practice and all is coming. " In other
words, by having faith in the system of Yoga and applying yourself in a
dedicated fashion to the practices, you will reap the fruits promised to you by
the ancient sages.
However, it is not
uncommon for many Yoga practitioners to become frustrated with their apparent
lack of progress in their practice. If you find that you are at such a
crossroads, by continuing to engage in a dedicated fashion to practicing on a regular
basis, you will reap the fruits of this ancient method of creating and
sustaining health, vitality and a strong connection with the divine. By
connecting with the Christmas virtues of faith and hope in your practice and in
the way that you teach Yoga classes, you will also harness the power of
resiliency when you encounter obstacles along the way.
One technique for
connecting with the power of faith on the mat is to allow you the time to
periodically engage in a free flowing and intuitively inspired Yoga practice.
In other words, by allowing yourself an hour on the Yoga mat in an unstructured
fashion, when you allow the movement to arise from within your own being, you
will cultivate a deep sense of faith in the inherent wisdom flowing through
your own body and breath.
There are several well-known
Yoga teachers who have modeled for us the beauty and wisdom of following an
intuitive sense of how to engage in a Yoga practice or class. For example,
Vande Scaravelli is a Yoga teacher who practiced a free form flow of Yoga
postures, depending on her own intuitive wisdom of what her body needed at any
given moment. In doing so, she was able to construct a practice that truly
uplifted her life and kept her healthy and active into her early nineties. Erich
Schiffman is another well-known Yoga teacher who espouses the beauty of an
intuitive flow of Yoga postures.
Although I really enjoy
practicing with a number of online Yoga teachers, sometimes the best way for me
to really tune into my own intuitive sense of how I need to move my body is to
put on some music that I love and simply commit to being on my mat for a set
period of time. Most of the time, I allow myself a full hour to explore the
unfurling of the asana practice from within my own being. When I allow myself
this amount of time to practice Yoga, I usually feel that I have fully engaged
in the practice.
Sometimes an intuitive
Yoga session for me will consist mostly of Sun Salutations and standing
postures. At other times, my body simple wants to rest for extended periods of
time in restorative poses, such as Supported Balasana. By allowing myself the
freedom and flexibility to practice Yoga in the way my body is specifically
asking for on that day and within the framework of a dedicated hour "on the
mat," I find that my practice is more deeply effective at releasing
tension and revitalizing me than many of the preset Yoga sequences that I often
follow.
Virginia Iversen, M.Ed, has
been practicing and studying the art of Yoga for over twenty years. She lives
in Woodstock, New York, where she works as a writer and an academic support
specialist. She is currently accepting Yoga and health-related writing
assignments and may be contacted at:enchantress108@gmail.com.
2 comments:
By connecting with the Christmas virtues of faith and hope in our practice we will also harness the power of resiliency when we encounter obstacles along the way. Nice sharing!
Hope, faith and charity are the essential three virtues of Christmas. The deep sense of hopefulness keeps the heart and mind focused on the many blessings that surround us. Thanks for sharing this nice article.
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