When you step onto the mat, there’s nothing between you and your heart. Nothing, that is, except the monkey mind. (Imagine your thoughts as monkey swinging from tree to tree, branch to branch, and you get the idea 😉 🐵 )
Each time you step onto your mat, it is like a first date. Each time, you come toe to toe, nose to nose, with sensations, emotions and thoughts. Anything and everything that has, until this moment, consumed your energy, consciously or unconsciously, rises to the surface.
Regrets and ruminations. Rankles and righteousness. Rage and resentment. It’s enough to make anyone roll up their mat and go back to bed.
Except…
You know it’ll be worth the effort. You know you’ll feel better afterwards. Which is perhaps more than we can say for some first dates.
When you step onto the mat, you step into an embrace with your higher self.
Your higher self will wrap her arms around you and hold you tight, even if your inner child is flailing and flapping like a lost balloon tossed skyward by the apathetic winds of life.
Eyes close. A slow, deep breath. Perhaps the only full breath you’ve taken in days. And the romance begins.
Romance is a creative experience. We feel energised, inspired, optimistic. We feel a sense of purpose.
As neuroscientist Dr Stephanie Cacioppo PhD observed,
“Love makes us sharper and more creative thinkers.”
Through creativity, we find connection. When in love, we connect with another. When we practise yoga, we connect with ourselves, and if we allow it, the universe that resides in all of us.
It might not feel like the universe is waiting for us, when we first step onto the mat, especially if we take yoga at face value which, for many, begins and ends with asana. But these physical poses and postures serve a purpose.
And it’s not to sculpt the body beautiful.
Asana is a powerful way to move energy.
Blood and lymph flow more freely, we breath more fully and diaphragmatically, we find ourselves softening and at the same time, feeling stronger.
Perhaps you’re starting to see the connection with love and romance?
At a deeper level, asana is the gateway to dhyana, or meditation, which according to ancient texts, is its reason for being. The first students of asana were young boys preparing to enter the priesthood, for whom the stillness of meditation was more than a little challenging. Yes, the monkey mind has a long history.
But ultimately, yoga encourages us to be less attached to the physical and mental constructs of ourselves. It invites us to look upon ourselves with love and compassion. To romance ourselves at a soul level.
Yoga compels you to stop, so that you can begin.
Got a case of monkey mind? Here’s a little mindfulness exercise you might like to try 😃
Article first published in Unapologetic Woman magazine.
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