We see letting
go as a weakness, a way of saying “I give up” you’re right, yielding to another
person’s desires while abandoning our own. We think if we surrender, we let go
of who we are and we disappear.
Yoga is so
about finding the balance. And on the yoga mat we try to find control over our bodies
and our minds by posturing, focusing on bone & joint alignment and muscles.
We focus on controlling the breath, making it go to the depths of the breathing
space. We concentrate the mind…letting go of all other possible thoughts and focusing
on just what is happening in the moment. So it's all about control, right? Ah,
not so much. It’s finding your feet in Mountain or Warrior and then settling in
to the posture and…letting go. Relaxing. Finding ease, and even trusting that
everything will be all right.
Isn’t that
the essence? Letting go of our own needs or desires and belief that we can and
are in control, and breathing into the spaciousness of letting go to the
Universe. Recently someone near to me said the Universe kept telling her to
slow down and she wasn’t listening, so she sprained her ankle and had to slow down.
Then she decided to vacuum with the new sprain and the new vacuum cleaner broke
its belt and the old stand-by vacuum wouldn’t work either! We cannot control
our environment.
We also
cannot give up or yield unless we have a starting point. We cannot surrender
into the yoga pose until we are certain
the feet & legs are supporting us. First we need to find solid ground,
align the joints, activate muscles and THEN relax into it.
It’s the same
with any project. Make a plan, get your proper tools and begin to work, while
allowing yourself to breathe and relax into what happens. We know that some of
the greatest art, whether a building, a
song or a painted landscape, happens when the artist is in the “zone”, that
place where one lets go of the “plan” and surrenders to the energy that is
happening. For the “Yoga Girl” or poster practicing Tree pose that we had at
our table at Earth Day celebration in Grandin Village, it began as an idea: wouldn’t it be cool to have a life
size person practicing tree and collage it in colors of the chakras? Then I had
to begin with materials. I found the recycled large cardboard at our friendly
co-op. A friend laid down (after showing me which direction on the cardboard)
and I drew around her for the outline. Then 2 other friends came over and cut
out the cardboard while I tore up papers and we kind of delineated where each
color would be on Tree girl. The creative process really began then, or was it
surrender that happened then? And the pieces of paper and glue went flying here
and there and when we stopped we found something we liked!
If there is
ever a reminder of how we are not the decision-makers, look at Mother Nature.
We never know if it will be sunny or rainy or we’ll get snow twice - at the end
of March and early April - in Southwest VA! Another way of looking at allowing yourself
to relax into higher power is to realize and remember that we are not the only
ones. We do a yoga practice for our health and well-being. We meditate to ease
a stressful mind. We devote ourselves…to our selves…and yet yoga is about the connection
within us and with what is around us and outside us.
Meditation
and other rituals or “habits” can remind us of our Oneness. When I forget that
I'm not in charge, when I forget I cannot control all, I take myself back to
the basics…the meditation cushion, the yoga mat, or the Greenway to re-connect
with Nature.
From
Wikipedia, ishvara-pranidhana is attention
to god or surrender to god. Attentive-ness and surrender. When we are gripping
on the yoga mat, it’s time to surrender…to remember the breath and find it slow
and steady, and that helps make our pose slow and steady, the mind slow and
steady.
Attentiveness
may show up as going to the mediation cushion, and finding a comfortable seat
to allow yourself room to expand into what is beyond you. Find the breath. Focus
on it. Or for some, maybe a devotional candle or small icon to focus on. Whatever
serves you, serves you.
At Earth Day
in the Village I experienced a random hand reading. One thing I was told was
that I think too much. Really? Yes, really. So again, the antidote for me is to
not think, but instead to breathe, paint without planning, be active outside. And
in those moments I may actually begin thinking and then find all my thoughts
get exhausted and go away. I like that.
Swami Satchidananda
translated the Yoga Sutras, saying this one niyama is all we need, “By total surrender to God, samadhi is attained.” If we
allow ourselves to let go we achieve that 8th limb Patanjali wrote
about. We find bliss. We reach enlightenment. In our self-centered society,
yoga affords us the opportunity to go within ourselves and to be able to then
go with –out ourselves and connect more deeply to all that is around us. Sometimes
for me it is like the walk at Happy Hollow, where I can marvel at the beauty of
the azaleas, the fern fronds, and the water in the creek. And know that all is
well.
I invite you to explore Ishvara-pranidhana,
to find surrender. On the yoga mat. And
off the yoga mat. Whatever you call what is bigger than you, be it God, or Higher
Power, or Nature, to surrender to, allow it to happen. Namaste
Debbie
