Beginnings by Helen Frankenthaler

by Barrie

“My intention for my practice this year is to show up. To carve out space, just one evening a week, for myself and my practice. To make space in the mornings, even if it’s just a few minutes, to move my body and align with forces greater than myself.”

I love this quote about a student’s intention because it reflects the importance of the un-fancy, unglamorous effort of showing up regularly in one’s practice. Making daily, sometimes small, deposits into the bank account of your well-being add up over time to keep you feeling good and, hopefully, able to do everything you need, want, and love to do in the rest of your life.

It’s a great example of abhyasa, the foundational principle found in the Yoga Sutras that emphasizes continued practice done over a long period of time with dedication. It’s the most fundamental way yoga works and the prerequisite for all the other ways we wish for our practice to serve us in our lives.

When I was interviewing long-time teachers for my book, I asked them, “What advice would you give to a student who wants to deepen their yoga practice?

One Senior Iyengar Yoga teacher in her mid-70s told me, “Just keep showing up. Because if you do, eventually something will happen.”

That something might not be a lofty or grandiose aha moment. It might be a seemingly small shift in how you feel after you’ve worked out the little kinks that tend to show up in your body, or the way your posture feels more aligned and easeful for the rest of the day, or a sense of inner calm even though nothing on the outside has changed.

It might also be the patience, perseverance, or humility you develop in getting your bum (to use the Canadian term) to the mat or the cushion, even when it might not feel easy or convenient. In these more subtle ways, practicing abhyasa in yoga is its own reward. It readies us to meet challenges in other areas of our lives with the same determination and fortitude that we cultivate as we keep showing up for our practice.

The ability to continue, and especially to come back to our practice when we’ve gotten disconnected from it, is one of the hallmarks of a seasoned practitioner and one of the most important skills we develop in yoga. It’s a kind of maturity that has nothing to do with age and everything to do with commitment and intention.

How empowering and freeing it can be to know that we don’t need to feel inspired or even excited about our practice for it to work. Simply showing up is enough. In fact, it’s paramount.

Here are ten tips for starting or re-starting your practice:

  1. Welcome yourself unconditionally.
  2. Begin with something you love that feels great in your body and go from there. (Rolling around on the floor counts.)
  3. Be generous with yourself. Keep it slow and sweet, and stay for as long as you want.
  4. Allow more space than usual for rest, breath, and simply feeling.
  5. Practicing in pajamas is totally okay.
  6. No mirrors allowed.
  7. Be more mindful than usual of the positive effects of the practice by noting how you feel afterward.
  8. Don’t try to get better at anything.
  9. No expectations. Whatever you do is enough.
  10. Consciously thank yourself for showing up no matter what your practice looked like.

 

Download a free class from Barrie’s new Yoga for Times of Change companion video series and learn more about her book Evolving Your Yoga: Ten Principles for Enlightened Practice at www.barrierisman.com.

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