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Winter
Feature with Kathy Ornish
Striving and Creating Space
Pushing Through:
For most of us, striving through most of our activities has become a habitual way of life – there's always so much to get done in so little time.
So, when we come to our yoga practice, we apply this same striving, whether its in asana (How much further can I go?), pranayama (Is that the longest I can make my breath?), or meditation (Focus, focus harder!). This constant habit of pushing often leads to harshness and constrictions in our endeavors rather than a sense of relaxed effort or spaciousness. When you are practicing, what does it mean to create space?
Giving Way:
We often think of space as something empty, devoid of content. What if we were to use 70% relaxed effort, leaving 30% as space? And what if this space wasn't empty, but this space was sukha – good space, sweet space, ease – a space where the unwinding and letting go happens?
Next time you practice:
Asana (the physical postures) - see if you can back off on your physical striving and take pauses throughout the practice to look and tune into the effects of what you are doing. Witness it and also interact with it.
Pranayama (practices of breath control)– What would it be like to really feel the invitation of the body fully filling with and emptying of the breath?
Meditation – So often we are working so very hard to keep the mind focused that we just grind away, losing any sense of relaxation and heart connection. My last newsletter addressed this in detail so please feel free to read it again CLICK HERE TO READ
And, striving isn't a fixed quantity that only happens at the grossest level. The more practice becomes subtle and perhaps more familiar, it can still have a larger quantity of striving than spaciousness.
As we cultivate this in our yoga practice, might it also be possible to bring this into our everyday lives? Striving has a certain feeling and energy, both in the mind and body. As you become more aware of this in your practice, see if you can begin to notice when this same thing arises in your daily life. Then pause, just as you have been doing in your yoga, and try the 70/30 idea.
Yours,in service,
Kathy Ornish
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