Inside Yoga 110 (18/6/14)

For many people who have heard about yoga and meditation, but don’t know anything about it, what it actually entails can appear to be very other worldly, demanding mastery along the lines of the most agile of martial arts, or can feel complicated and steeped in mysticism and wonder.

When I am asked about yoga and meditation I usually look for the easiest and most tangible explanation that sums up his ancient tradition. And the best explanations are so close to home sometimes we don’t even notice it!

There are a few expressions which are common to English language that sum up yoga and meditation perfectly.

For example, why do we say “give me a moment to myself”? We say this because when we feel under pressure our own sub-conscious is urging us to take ourselves away from what is troubling us, putting us under pressure, and let us find a moment to calm ourselves, to collect our thoughts and re-appraise the situation. A meditator does just this: it is about being in the present moment, and giving us space – this is where we can experience clarity and a sense of calmness.

Another expression: “Let me catch my breath” is so spot on to what we practice in yoga. When stressed and out of balance, one thing we notice is that to work out what is going on, to get on top of the situation which is assaulting our sense of clarity and calm, we need to get our breath back. Simply breathing deeply and calmly can bring us straight back to stillness, clarity and well-being. Learning about the breath and how to breathe is the bedrock of yoga and meditation.

At times when we are up against the wall, we can find ourselves saying: “Give me space to think”. Here again we can see that our instincts know what is good for us. We need space. Meditation teaches us to find this space and to maintain it – by creating some space within our own mind we can then create space around us. We can use meditation in stressful situations to find the room we need to think clearly, and take the appropriate action.

And how about this expression to sum up what yoga is about: “healthy body is a healthy mind”. I grew up hearing my parents saying this expression and it is one we grow accustomed to hearing, but then we forget its point and let our bodies suffer and become unhealthy. It is a simple relationship, if we feel bad in the body our mind is likely to also feel bad. Hence in yoga we learn physical exercises to improve the health of our body.

Yet even though we grew up hearing these expressions, designed subliminally to teach us something, we forget and ignore them and then when we want to sort ourselves out we reach out to something magical, esoteric and mystical to solve our woes, when the answer was already within us and accessible.

As the oft-used saying tells us, the answer is often closer to home.

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