“Everything is practice.” — Pele
Weekly Focus: Abhyasa / practice
Tatra sthitau yatnah abhyasa Sutra 1:13 (Effort toward steadiness of mind is practice.)
Abhyasa is practice or repetition and refers specifically to a practice that aims at achieving a tranquil state of mind.
Learning new information is only as good as the effort we put into maintaining and practicing the utilization of learned information. Consistency allows new knowledge and skills to sink in, and to eventually blossom new petals.
As an adult, learning something new is not always easy. Children spend the entirety of their days learning through play, through school, through home life. As adults, we sometimes tend to think we know it all, or know all that we need. This week is all about creating a consistent effort. If we desire to become better humans, we need to have a consistent effort towards change, and we have to be willing to practice that effort when it feels hard. How do we flip the script on practice to see this effort as a form of play or ritual?
Here are [3] ways that abhyasa shows up in our yoga practice:
- Each time we sit down to center ourselves at the beginning, we practice sifting our thoughts and engaging in the present moment.
- Each time you hear your teacher remind you to breathe, you practice engaging to breath and being absorbed by the postures and the mind-body connection.
- Each time you lie down in savasana you practice creating stillness in body and mind, and calming the ever racing thoughts that pervade our daily experience.
In reality though, yoga is practice not only on our mats, but also out of the studio and into our daily lives. So any moment that we take pause to breathe, to meditate, think before we act — we are practicing our yoga.
Passive Pose of the Week: Reclined Cactus
For some, the hardest thing in asana is lying in silence and stillness — here is an opportunity to practice.
- Come to lie down on your back.
- Bend your elbows and let the forearms and hands lie on the ground framing your face, like a cactus or goal post position.
- Be aware of relaxing and loosening the tension in your fingers.
- Set yourself a quiet timer and try to take a full [5] minutes of rest.
For some of us, it may be challenging to get the forearm and wrists to soften to the ground. For additional support, try rolling a washcloth or small towel and rest it behind the wrist. This will provide a foundation for the arm to drop into, allowing the opening of the shoulders and chest to come with more ease.
Active Pose of the Week: Parsva bakasana (side crow)
Side crow typically isn’t a posture we can simply jump right into — for many practitioners, it might take years of practice and effort to achieve this arm balance. Don’t let this deter you however! So much can be learned throughout the process. It often isn’t about where we are headed, but what we learn along the way.
- Begin in mountain pose (standing).
- Bend you knees and drop your hips into chair pose. You can literally imagine yourself sitting back into an invisible chair behind you.
- From chair pose, begin to sink lower into a narrow squat. Find your balance and turn towards your right.
- Your hands will come to the floor in front of your legs of the legs, as if you are leaning over your right thigh.
- Make sure your hands are about shoulders-width distance or slightly wider than your shoulders.
- Begin to lean forward so that you may firmly press your weight into your hands.
- Balance your weight all of the way into the hands. Let your chest tip forward towards the floor in front of you.
- Squeeze the legs and feet together and start to lift them from the floor.
A super helpful tool in this pose is to allow blocks to help support the balance in this pose. Place the blocks on the tallest setting in front of your hands, where you anticipate your shoulders leaning forward. As you lean forward, let yourself land on the blocks to help you stay lifted in the pose. For some of us, only one of our shoulders may land at the blocks, and that is totally ok!
Join us in class this week to find your practice! See the fulll schedule HERE.