Self help II.

The way we approach our asanas – the things we carry onto our yoga mat – reflects our negative samskaras, the repetitious ruts and potholes of our lives. But, in that reflection, is also help: Because asanas occupy the body and still the mind, each posture cultivates awareness. Physical. And mental.

The beauty of all that consciousness is: it opens tight places. Creates space, so that space can make room for insight. And so that insight...can spark ideas for change.

But sparks alone aren’t enough to lift us from bad scars and patterns. What is familiar is also powerful, and the ideas that come to us during asana are easily resisted or cast aside when we roll up our mats and return to everyday life. 

What to do? Set intentions. First, make it about your practice. Then inch it into other parts of your life. When you wake up. When you sit down at your desk. When you get in your car to drive down the road.

Though intentions are described many different ways, I believe them to be a self-promise. Something you’d like to embody. Devote yourself to. For a moment. For a day. Maybe even forever. Everything you then do is done with your intention in mind.

Grace and artfulness.

I want to be well.

No anger today.

Calm.

Ahimsa.

What’s beautiful about intentions is: When they mean something, you carry them with you. The feeling you created. The presence. The vulnerability and the hopefulness and the accomplishment. Suddenly, samskaras that seemed impossible to shed soften, and happier samskaras slowly take their place. On the mat…and off.