Take the Leap

(alternate title: crouching yogi hidden pose)

I’ve been practicing yoga for about 10 years now. Sounds like a long time but it really is just a blink of an eye in this thing called life (and so on). Pantanjali talks a lot about Sthira and Sukha in the sutras (authoritative text on yoga and a series of threads of wisdom offering guidelines to live a meaningful and purposeful life). Sthira and Sukha translates to steadiness and ease. This push and pull… energy and calm. Sthira can also mean steadfast, courageous, and strong. Sukha can mean gentle, easy, and delightful.  Sutra 2.46 translates to “posture (asana) [should be] stable (sthira) and comfortable (sukha).” 

Having practiced yoga for so long, part of it becomes comfortable. I have zero anxiety walking into a yoga studio and rolling out my mat. I know if there is a pose I don’t feel comfortable doing I have the safety of child’s pose. I know that even if I choose to sit in child’s pose the entire class that I’m still practicing yoga. I have a general idea of what to expect in a vinyasa class (the style I most often practice). But with comfort comes curiosity. I learn something new in every class. Maybe I decided to push up into full wheel instead of hanging out in restorative bridge (my all time favorite). Or maybe handstand just stuck for what feels like forever and I try and figure out what alignment my body is in so I can repeat it again and again. Or maybe the dharma talk is exactly what I needed to hear that day or on the flip side maybe I was annoyed and antsy in savasana. I love that yoga is one of the most comfortable things in my life, but also the one thing that is never the same and constantly changing. And even though my vinyasa practice is constnatly changing, when I realize there is maybe too much comfort, I want to leap outside of that zone. One word: Ashtanga. 

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois created this style of yoga in the early 1900s. An ancient text called the Yoga Korunta was given to Sri T. Krishnamacharya in the early 1900’s by his guru Brahmachari then passed down to Pattabhi Jois in 1927. In Ashtanga Yoga breath is linked with movement producing an internal heat designed to purify the body (does holding poses for 5 breaths sound familiar?!). This style purifies the body while also creating space for more prana (life force, energy, #allthethings). And when practiced for a long time the clutter in the mind can clear, physical and mental problems go away, and you discover more self-awareness. Ashtanga Yoga is the base for a lot of the yoga styles (vinyasa, power, flow) we practice in the west. You maybe have also heard about Mysore, India and the Mysore Ashtanga practice. This is where you practice on your own and your teacher/guide gives you one-on-one attention and tells you when to stop moving forward. You work on mastering the series up until that pose then move on when the teacher says so. 

Here’s the things- Ashanga yoga is hard… like really hard. And it’s a style of yoga that rips me out of my comfort zone. I’ve known what Ashtanga Yoga is but haven’t really practiced it. In my yoga training I was really curious because our mentor actually started his yoga practice with Ashtanga and talked about it often. I ended up signing up for an Ashtanga workshop with Patthabi Jois’ grandson, Sharath Jois last year and wow was it was humbling. He led hundreds of yogis through what I think was the entire Ashtanga series… primary, advanced, everything. There were moments when I was crouched down looking around thinking oh my god what is happening right now people are in pretzels rocking back and forth in circles. We also did maybe 150 chaturungas. Fast forward to this weekend. I wanted to try Ashtanga again but didn’t know if I could join a Mysore class right away so I took a primary led class at Jivamukti. As I said before, I usually walk into a yoga class with confidence, throw my mat down, and know what to expect (for the most part). I peeked into this Ashtanga room and there were two candles and a picture of Patthabi Jois. There were no mats set up so I didn’t know if my mat was supposed to face the lone candle on the side or the candle with the picture so I just put my rolled mat down and walked back into the hallways until someone else did anything. Our mats faced the picture.

I had no clue what the opening prayer was. I could hang with the sun salutations, the millions of chaturungas, and some of the standing and seated positions. But my body couldn’t do a lot of the class. I have really tight shoulders and hips so I stopped at A or B variation when the teacher was going on to C and D. I often had to look around to see what was even happening. And I’m not used to focusing on my drishti the entire class— navel, thumbs, navel, nose, nose, nose, navel. While I’ve been practicing yoga for 10 years and it’s one of the most not comfortable comfortable things in my life, it was refreshing entering a yoga space that brought up a little insecurity and uncertainty. Will I sign up for the daily Mysore classes (minus the mood days)? I don’t know. Could I jump out of my comfort zone a little more? Probably.