Inside Yoga 173 (11/6/2016)

Do you have moments when you feel completely carefree or does this feeling of freedom feel like a distant memory, something that when we think about it, hasn’t happened for a long time, perhaps as far back as our teenage years? So what has gone wrong? Or is anything wrong?

For many of us life can feel like this and what can make it feel worse is that we do not know how to regain that feeling of freedom. And this is where the good news comes in: tapping into this sense of freedom, however fleeting, is one of the main benefits of a yoga/meditational practice.

One of my teachers, Clive Sheridan, began a retreat with the words, “we are here to get rid of what we don’t need in our lives”. On hearing this, I thought what a great “sound-bite” for yoga, and it made so much sense, it summed up the practice.

To feel free and care-free we get rid of the obstacles instead of trying to get somewhere else or grab hold of something different. It is a steady process, like peeling the layers of an onion, down the core which is the purest bit. This is us – deep down at our core, we are pure and free, and always have been. Yes I admit it does sound like a new age cliche, but that doesn’t mean it is not true!

The mechanical and repetitious nature of yoga practice and seated meditation practice is designed to gradually strip aware the layers that we do not need, whether it is major trauma and stress, or it is mild irritations of daily life, we want none of this in our lives.

Another image I like is that of a backpack we carry, called our “backpack of burden”, which can get very heavy and weigh us down to a point that life feels very hard going or in worst cases, the pack gets so heavy it just stops us completely. We learn through yoga/meditational practice to empty this backpack of burden and if we can, we take the bag off completely – getting rid of what we do not need.

Anyone who has gone on a long trek with a heavy bag knows how great and liberating it feels when we take the bag off. Your body feels stronger from the exercise and at the same time it feels much lighter as if your shoulders are rising upwards – liberated and free. This is what we want to feel through our practice.

Practice is the key word here, because we might want to be liberated of our burden in one go, but that is not realistic. It takes hard work and perseverance to lighten our load, and then it becomes a process of maintenance as we seek to keep the pack of burden as light or empty as possible, never wanting it to get as full as it was pre-yoga.

Here is a day-to-day example of what we don’t need. Take the “Monday blues”, a feeling many of us go through every week. We wake up and it’s just another morning, we might feel great, but then the thought (or realisation) that “it is Monday” pops into our head, and then it begins… work to do, tasks to get done… and suddenly we feel very heavy and filled with burden. We might not think it at the time, but look at how edgy and grumpy we are on a Monday and not on a Sunday morning? It is normal but we don’t like it. This is an example of something we do not need, so some yoga or meditation practice can help get us beyond and free of the negativity of Monday blues.

Getting rid of what we do not need right here and now, is much more accessible and achievable than looking for a distant place which we think will give us the answers and liberate us – plus, the problem is we often don’t know the way either!

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