Open to the new…

If we weren’t green at something we’d be brown and rotten…

Isn’t it nice to learn…

I’m writing this as sometimes we think we’re in control! In learning is there opportunity to realise we aren’t in control and anything we learn is really the tip of the iceberg with so much more to learn. Is there more than meets the eye, more below the surface that is there as a steadier or as a knowing there is depth, there is so much more to learn and grow and understand…

Yoga is a great awakening, there is always something to learn…

If anytime you think you know it all or your ego is getting in the way then go and do a strong yoga class or really investigate a pose and be humbled to remember we are always learning and there is so much more than meets the eye.

In ashtanga yoga for example, it’s an amazing sequence as in the truth of the practice it’s mysore style and that means when you’re ready the next pose is given to you by your teacher to discover it and learn about it. Once you’ve learned and integrated that pose then the next and then the next is given to you and so on with varying degrees of difficulty and commitment to open and receive your understanding and lesson in it.

For each student that is very different due to so many reasons and to the integration of how we learn, our body shape and type, our connection to the pose, the way we approach learning, the movement pattern and so on…

• In class, are you pushing to do too much and not learning your lesson in the pose.
• What is the feeling?
• What arises in the most simple of poses
  • i.e.: Savasana is so hard as so often we can’t even be still, the mind and eyes are flickering, we’re moving physically and not present to surrender to the depth of learning in the moment.
• In meditation: Is it difficult to keep a one pointed fixed attention?

If we’re trying to do too much and pushing too hard do we get blockages, do we get injuries, do we stop, do we break, do we give up and resume later and then think why did I stop, why didn’t I keep going? Why didn’t I do less? Why didn’t I try and just be in the moment? Why wasn’t I happy to just be in it and let it come to me?

Ever began to learn something new and notice the way you learn?

For beginners to a class it can seem intimidating but everyone is in their own experience of the pose.

Is it trying to:

• Open into it – mobilise and flexibility
• Strengthen
• Find a shape similar to what someone else is doing
• Breathing into the feeling
• Listening to the feedback from the body
• Listening to the cues from the instructor

We all have our own shape and own energy, we are not text books and therefore not going to be the same. The emotions and energies within us are different and different poses may bring up different experiences for us.

Emotions can arise and often do and bodily functions occur too. Experiences may be relived and fears and anxieties in poses can also stimulate responses.

On the ashtanga floor, you’d often see people skip a pose they didn’t like, change the sequence or skim past some part.

But simply:

• Can we go into the pose and learn about it,
• Take the time to learn and explore,
• Know there are depths and layers to the poses we do,
• The energy in us is different each time and the experience is hence different every time…

Take the time to integrate the learnings, the feelings, the layers, the intricacies of the poses, the BE-ing of the pose…

Perhaps just some thoughts to consider in the way we learn and grow…