Sometimes in yoga class, as well as in life, we are encouraged to "go deep." Sometimes it makes sense to do so. And SOMETIMES, its just not in the cards. Whether we are sick, or injured, or plain old having a bad day, the desire to "go deep" and take ourselves to the absolute limit of our abilities, isn't always the most fruitful or wise path. Sometimes, we need to summon what lies just beneath the surface. The path of least resistance may hold a well-source of energy we can tap into when we are depleted and when we need space held for us.
A few weeks ago was the crazy super-blue-blood-moon-eclipse extravaganza, and man, it was a LOT of energy. Hadn't happened in like, 150 years either. It wiped me out and I got super sick. I rested up for a few days; enough to still teach my classes (don't worry, I skipped the massage and hands-on assists). I was still pretty exhausted and beat up and for some odd reason I decided that teaching ustrasana (camel pose), my LEAST favorite backbend, was a great idea. I don't know where it came from...it just sorta organically happened in class. And weirdly, I didn't feel like I was forcing my body into it, or convincing my mind that teaching it was necessary. It just kinda flowed. I literally felt like I was dipping right beneath the surface to pull out the resource I needed at that time. I trusted the universe, my abilities, and what was most needed, manifested itself. How's that for some full moon magic!
We tend to ask "is it enough?" or "am I enough?" Seriously, maybe you have that feeling several times a day. We often tell ourselves that we aren't. I do it. But why? The self-competitiveness, the over-efforting to fit our expectations into our pre-conceived vision, the wandering off the middle-path, tend to make us feel, well...miserable. We suffer when we do this, and as the Buddha says: "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."
So what's the point of all this...
The middle path. Brahmacharya. The balance we can strike within ourselves and between ourselves and the universe. Where is the tipping point between over-efforting and putting in just enough; where we can reach beneath the surface rather that digging so deep we expend all our energy? The Goldilocks effect...similar to planet earth and her alignment within the solar system.
As such, I return to my original focus of this blog entry: reaching beneath the surface. Try it sometime. That middle path, those resources floating just beneath water in your well, they may be the thing that helps you expand more than you ever thought possible.
♡
