Have you come across a passage and are filled with gratitude that someone was able to articulate how you feel?
Well, this is one of them…..in joy. 🙂
“Do not fight your body. Do not carry the world on your shoulders like Atlas. Drop that heavy load of unnecessary baggage and you will feel better.
Do you kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose. Do not look at your body like a stranger, but adopt a friendly approach towards it. Watch it, listen to it, observe its needs, its requests, and even have fun. Play with as children do, sometimes it becomes very alert and swift.
To be sensitive is to be alive.
When some difficulty arises we can always find a different movement, since the body is surprisingly able to adjust itself. It has its own intelligence and is willing to cooperate in finding a solution to any problem. One has only to approach problems with patience, care and attention.
Nobody can help you to do this. You have to become your own teacher and your own disciple (these are the Krishnamurti’s words).
People have all kinds of misconceptions about yoga. One must not think the exercises are going to give us a higher perspective in a mystical or spiritual direction. They are simply refreshing the body, like a shower, cleansing us from the dirt and impurities accumulated during the day. It is like tuning an instrument before playing it. The movements are healthy and we receive physical advantages from doing them. Arms and legs need motion and any form of activity is good for us, such as walking, running, aerobics, golf, martial arts, gymnastics, and other forms of physical training. But our sports have become competitive and man spoils them through his insatiability for glory and success.
Yoga has nothing to do with acrobatics or spectacular exhibitionism, even though some poses rather look like it. Students are sometimes inclined to force the flexibility of their bodies to the maximum, but this leads nowhere.
Yoga goes much deeper. Sometimes unexpected things happen that cannot be easily explained, like healing, bursts of crying, and other similar discharges of pressure. When tensions leave, the body goes back to its original state, and balance is re-established.”
–Vanda Scarvelli, Awakening the Spine
