You know when you have an encounter that you keep running over and over in your head, diving deeper into what it means to you? I had one of those experiences the other day.
I was at a local nail salon getting a pedicure. Beyond the fact that I live and work barefoot most of the time and enjoy having tidy, pretty feet, I have a what seems to be a genetic in-grown nail problem with both of my big toes. This is something that my aunt and grandfather share(d) in the same big toe location. So, when I begin to feel the pressure or pain, I head to Lovettsville where Gai gets my toe back in order.
This last week, however, Gai had another client and so my time was spent with a lovely young woman who was new to the salon. After some inquires, I learned that she has just moved to the area from Vietnam in order to be with her new husband, the owner of the salon and son of Gai. We talked a bit about culture shock and the joys and challenges of joining the family business. She then asked me what I did. I told her that I owned a small yoga studio across the river.
Here’s where things get interesting. She asked if I also taught yoga classes. I said that I do. Her head tilted like a curious puppy and said, “I thought that yoga teachers were young!” My eyebrow lifted and I responded, “Well, I started teaching when I was in my 20s, so I was once a young yoga teacher. However, the yoga practice has supported me throughout my life, now I am a well seasoned yogi.”
Truthfully, what has been stirring around in my head for a week about this story was not that someone referred to me as “not young,” I can bow to that as I turn 51 in a few weeks and in the lens of her 20 something eyes, I am much older. It is not even that the comment seemed rude to my American sensibilities, as age is something less taboo in Vietnam or other countries. Cultures have different norms. Heck, I lived in Venezuela for two year and people would actually TOUCH a pimple on your face to make sure you know that it is there. “Yeah, I KNOW!” would be my common answer. I swear that that was (is) totally normal cultural behavior.
This encounter instead asked me to take a deeper dive into the perception within her mind, and even within our own culture, of yoga being primarily a fitness-based practice, pursued in dynamic forms for the young, instead of yoga being a study of SELF in it’s wholeness, with all its complexities. Yoga is a practice to mature with throughout one’s life. There are so many different directions that I could go in talking about the truth of the yoga practice. But simply, yoga is a tool for spiritual, mental/emotional and physical health.
The word “health” comes from “heal” and “thy,” that is, health is healing one’s own Self. The word 'Yoga' is derived from the Sanskrit root 'Yuj' which means “yoke, unite, bring together.” Yoga is essentially a practice of healing ourself through unifying our body/energy, thought/emotion with the mediator of the breath which connects us meaningfully to life and thus our spiritual place in the scope of it all.
Long before the tantric renaissance that brought about the birth of utilizing the body postures in yoga to discharge tension, create more supple tissues, and prepare the body for deeper states of meditation, yoga was defined through meditation, devotional singing, philosophical exploration, and selfless service.
In the second century CE, Pantanjali wrote the Yoga Sutras, a Reader’s Digest-like compilation of the great teachings of the ancient Vedas and Upanishads. The Yoga Sutras provided a broader accessibility to understanding the foundations of yoga. In the 196 sutras (collection of texts) he includes only one brief mention about the asanas or postures. In sutra 2.46, Pantanjali wrote, “sthira sukham asanam” which translates to “experience the asana (posture) as having both sthira (steadiness) and sukham (comfort and ease).”
If find that single sutra to be my own personal mission in every arena of my life. Whenever I can hold a balance between effort and ease, structure and sweetness, grounding and sway, there is a state of embodied integration that manifests and YOGA is present - a union of mind, emotions, body, breath and spirit. I have learned so much more about this union with each passing day in my 30 years of yoga practice. I can experience yoga when I take a walk, when I hold the listening space for someone, weed the garden, shop for groceries, clean the bathroom, lift weights, have a good cry, when I navigate the inner dialog within my own heart and mind, while I teach a class, or as I write this email. Yoga is as much a psychology, as it is a physiology, as it is a study of spiritual nature.
The time ON the mat, we can:
utilize asana that tugs on tissues and moves the life force
witness thoughts ride the waves of emotions as they rise, peak and resolve
focus on the breath as the thread that unites body and mind
supplant unproductive inner and outer dialog with beneficial ones through the use mantra and intentionality like “Sat Nam” (truth is my essence)
This YOGA re-wires and conditions us for more connected and meaning-filled experiences OFF the mat.
When we combine meditation and breath with our movement practices, we can experience first hand shift of health on all levels, the self-healing through uniting, the re-membering Self in wholeness.
Yoga has gifts for every age, at whatever stage of life that we begin. Yoga, and applying it through the lens of traditional Chinese medicine meridian theory, is the practice that been my consistent thread for psycho-spiriutal and physical health and well being for 30 years. I am ready to keep exploring, diving deeper, evolving, and sharing for another 30 years.
You might like to know, after my conversation with the young woman at the salon, we shared emails and I sent her three free class recordings of different styles for her to enjoy with her mom, and maybe experience “yoga” from a broader perspective. We will see.
When we each can enter our practices as a vehicle of insight, we can move through experiences by softening the judgmental mind and cultivate the ability to explore this life with curiosity, compassion and connection. That is the heart of yoga.
With love,
~Machelle