Several times a day I open my mouth as wide as I can and un-clinch my jaw. Periodically I become aware that it is tight again. Life and living seems to wind it up in a kink. It's not the only place that gets wound up either....shoulders and lower back are also common.
I'm happy today that It is noticeable enough for me to do something about it. Before I started practicing yoga and awareness I didn't notice things like this......I didn't notice my body or my relationship to it. I think this jaw must have been wound up so tightly for so long that I didn't remember anything else. With awareness and practice I began to let go of so much gripping....I began to understand what I was doing in the ways I move and hold my physical body and could, with awareness, choose something different.....I could choose to unwind the tight places.
Just like the places in my body that tense and kink there are places in my mind that do the same thing. A few years ago when this was first pointed out to me, I didn't get it. The processes of my mind were hidden to me and the only things I could be aware of were content....
.......Content is easy to recognize in the brain.....its aalllll the stuff we think about wrapped up in our assessments and judgements of it.
Content may be proof of the state we are in.....anxious, unsatisfied, afraid, etc. But knowing the content won't give us the insight we need to see how we are wound up in these things. What we really need is access and understanding of the process
The real benefit of yoga practice for me is that the physical practice of unwinding my body began to educate my mind and spirit. Just like it takes time, intuition, interest, awareness, patience and commitment to unwind and further my physical yoga practice; when I apply these to my inner life, things begin to unwind.
Trungpa Rimboche said that if you want to unwind you have to first see how you are wound up.
For me, starting on a physical level gave me time and space to enter slowly a place I wasn't sure I really wanted to go in...... I had tried acquiring a meditation practice but it eluded me and I gave up. It was quite by accident that I decided to try yoga as a fix for my aging posture.
Most of us have tried finding a place of ease, or of unwound in the right relationship or or the right circumstances but no one can do this work for another. I cannot practice yoga for my husband even though he is in dire need....I cannot have someone do my practice for me.... This stuff is an inside job.
It's actually empowering to know that I am the only one who needs to understand me and I am the only one who can change anything about my inner life. No one can come along and take over for me....telling me that I'm doing it wrong. No one can undermine my journey.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Each of us has unlimited opportunities to be engaged in this process of personal evolution and we can choose to do it or not; we can choose from an array of approaches and methods.
Or we can stay wound up...... if that feels good.
Unwound feels better to me.
1 Comment
lauren besman
10/24/2015 12:38:29 pm
Love this as always, so happy you are writing again!:)
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Lucy Facer BernsteinI am a committed yogi and community member. I believe in the goodness of humankind and that as we discover our ultimate connectedness we can all find peace....within and without. Archives
November 2017
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