Refinments

Last night I took Matt Newmans class from Prana Yoga in Trolly Square, it was awesome. We talked a little about the gunas which are qualities of nature: tamas (not enough), ragas (to much), sattva (just right). We all have these gunas in us and they all very. It takes a lot of self inqury to notice where we might have to much where we might have to litte, and from this self study we can start to make refinements in ourself to create this more harmonious state of being.

At one point during the class he mentioned how none of us are perfect and we all have our “issues”, areas, or specific principles we need to work on to bring more balance to the pose. I remember when Matt would say something similar to this when I first started Anusara yoga, and although I knew my practice wasn’t perfect, I did not know what specific refinements I needed to make in order to create a more harmonious outer pose and create a more harmonious inner experience. When he said this last night (after lots of practice, dedication, and self study) I knew what my natural tendencies are so I was able to take specific refinements to create a more sattvic experience.

(The areas I am working with are side body length, taking my back bend into my upper back by rooting the tailbone more, and watching my right elbow because it has a tendency to hyper extend).

If you show up to Matt’s class for one of your first yoga classes ever and he says something like that you might think “I suck, I cant even balance in any of these poses…other people have issues…no. I cant do any of this…” Or something...

So the steps are, showing up, self observation, study, refinements = BLISS

I think we can learn how to create more ease in our life with this equation as well. At first maybe people don’t realize their life might not be in balance, because they haven’t even looked. But then once they take the time to look inside they might realize they might be experiencing a combination of ragas, and tamas and not very much sattva. Its like if you have never taken an Anusara yoga class you might not know that you have a tendency to collapse in your low back (although you might experience back pain). But once you show up on the matt and start moving around, and really feel the body, you might think hmm.. my back hurts in back bends… Then through more practice, more study, more personal awareness you will beginning to see that if you use the refinements of the principles and the loops you will beginning to see that these little adjustments create such ease in the body mind and spirit both on and off the mat.

(opps dont have time to finish off to a day of skiing!!)