Yoga = Love

A " Yoga is about love, it is about joy, it is about compassion and about serving the world, it is not about doing the splits. " Mark Breadner

I was having a rough afternoon, we are getting into the functional assessment component of Yoga Coach and I was struggling to stay awake. More so that is the part I struggle with the most, it is the part where my hands go clammy and I become that fish out of water....I don't know the names of the muscles. I have learnt them, but do you think I can remember them? Obvious ones like quad, hamstring, calf, I am ok with - but get me to go any deeper than that and I shut down. I love working with the body, I love learning the secrets that we store in our bodies and how over years we hold our thoughts and our beliefs in our hearts and our hips and how then our bodies shape and form around those beliefs. I love that like the Tibetan Buddhists say, "the body is a slow mind" but get me to tell you which abdominal muscle holds in your inner or your outer unit and I really have not much idea.

But then Mark dropped in that pearl of wisdom, that yoga is not about splits or handstands or holding postures in full range of motion for great lengths of time (as he explains the immense damage you do to joints etc is not worth the effort nor the stroking of the ego).  And I am reminded that I can get caught up in learning each and every muscle, but will it truly help people? That helping people to stretch the tight areas and strengthen the weak ones, that in itself can be life changing. Bringing your posture back to or as close to alignment is more important than standing on your head. Giving the body the chance to be steady and comfortable so you can breath. It is really that simple. And then living a life of love, of joy and of compassion. No that is where you can transform your life.

So today I am still trying to get my head around how to stabilise joints, how to strengthen someone's lower back if they have flat back, what it means when someone has kyphosis.....but I will remember that at the end of the day, it is really all about love.  And that is why I love yoga.

My teacher Mark - and teaching us about love

PS Let me just add,  Mark started the session off with "I don't care if you know the names, just point to your body where you are talking about " it is me that puts that pressure on myself of 'getting it'. Still have some work to do around that one :)