1st 2nd 3rd principle. Finding a balance between stability and ease.

I just taught a class at the yoga center and it was really great! I was feeling really overwhelmed today with school and upcoming volunteer/ internships approaching. I have been thinking about sthira/effort/stability and sukham/ease/freedom. Right now I am balancing school, work, yoga, volunteering, husband, dog. My tendency while trying to balance this it to use a lot of effort and I need to bring in more ease. I work so hard, over think things, over plan things and I get stressed. I literally contract. I also have noticed that I have friends and classmates whose natural tendency is ease. They don’t really think about homework, tests, and internships. This causes them to worry but not in a contracted way like when I worry. Both of these situations are unhealthy. I need to pause and breathe and be a little more easeful. I need to recognize that because I am so disciplined it allows me the opportunity of freedom because I have finished all my papers early and I can take a few hours off and practice my yoga or go out with friends. For people who are to at ease or lazy need more stability, structure and discipline so they don’t fail the class. This is just me kind of thinking and rambling.

So that was my plan to work on 2nd principle/muscular energy and 5th principle/organic energy.

I also want to make sure that we focused a lot on 1st principle/open to grace. I have somewhat struggled with teaching 1st principle because it is so vague. “Open to grace” “inner body bright” I have also had a hard time finding the right words to help my students really connect and understand this MOST IMPORANT PRINCIPLE. However I have been thinking about it a lot lately as my life has gotten more chaotic. When John was here he was saying that 1st principle is “take it easy”. I like that. I have also been thinking about how first principle is taking it easy but it is also bringing your awareness to where you are. It is acknowledging where you are and to be 100% present 100% authentic and be okay with what that experience is. When you are present and authentic and accept yourself as you are and where you are, you can be proud. That proudness and acceptance to me is inner body bright. It allows me to accept where I am. It allows us to acknowledge that I am part of grace and open to grace. To give another example about homework. Some nights I am working on 3 papers, I am reading a chapter, I am emailing a teacher, I facebook open… I am doing 10 things at once. When I do this I am not 100% present to any one of them, how could I be. I also cannot be 100% authentic because I am not present; I am not fully showing up. I need to open to grace. It’s just like when I am mindlessly doing yoga, I step into my lunge like the teacher ques but really I am thinking about dinner, and my husband, and my homework, and my inner thighs, again I am not present or aware. When I pause in each of these situations. I recognize hey I here. I am going to be fully present, and not divide my energy. I am going to soften, I am going to remember how I am a great person and that I am connected to this amazing essence that is so much bigger then myself. That everything will be alright. When I come to place of “oh yeah, I am here, I am present, and I think I am awesome” then I can begin to find stability and I can experience freedom. But if I am not open, receptive, or in remembrance I can even begin to work on stability and freedom.

These three principles: open to grace, muscular energy, and organic energy are the main principle of Anusara yoga inner and outer spiral are only refinements.

I talked a little about the idea of don’t always go with you dosha. I gave the example of going to a restuaraunt where there is spicy food and you have the option between mild, medium, hot, really hot. You go to the restraint with a group of friends and in the group there is a really firy passionate friend, and also a timid shy friend. It is most likely the fiery person will get the really hot option and the timid will get the mild. When the fiery person doesn’t need more fire and could probably benefit from the mild and the timid person could probably use a little heat. The point is we have a natural tendency that we tend to go with. I pointed this out in poses. If you are someone who gets into the pose and actively engages so much you probably don’t need to continue to work on squeezing the muscles to the bones and in towards the midline, maybe you should work on softening and extending out in opposite directions. And vise versa.

I also pointed out that through this awareness and learning about ourself we gain knowledge CHIT and we can use this knowledge with skill so we can be more happy, and blissfull ANANDA
Wow wrote this quickly. Now homework to do

May I find a balance between effort and ease so I may enjoy the freedom of life while maintaining stability.